:::tzt;cit: t; 



ami 



fPL Hi ^HrHrrr* ^ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ChapJIjilP Copyright No... 
, Shelf,S..4.1\ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



tlbe IRomance of Colonlsatfom 



THE UNITED STATES. 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE 

LANDING OF THE PILGRIM 

FATHERS. 



G. BAENETT SMITH, 

AUTHOR OF " THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT," BIOGRAPHIES 

OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, JOHN KNOX, SIR JOHN 

FRANKLIN, ETC. 



^t»-ic 



V ^ -^ 



NEW YORK: 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 

1897. 



Copyright, 1897, 
By Dodd, Mead and Company. 



:]553 



En*?? 
,Sc-M 



SEttibftsitg ^rrss: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



THERE is probably nothing more surprising in the 
history of the British Empire than the enormous 
expansion of its colonial possessions. Long before 
Canning made his proud boast that he " had called 
the. New World into existence to redress the balance 
of the Old," England had been adding island after 
island, and territory after territory, to that empire 
upon which the sun never sets. 

The work of colonization as it has been pursued by 
various nations in all parts of the world is a study 
of the deepest interest. Land migrations have had 
much to do with the settlement of new districts ; but 
the movement has been fostered still more by the 
growth of merchant navies and the exchange of 
produce between nations. The Roman Empire fur- 
nished one of the most remarkable episodes in the 
history of colonization ; but from that time forward 
little was done until the extraordinary developments 
of the colonizing spirit in the sixteenth century. 
Spain and Portugal took the premier honours in the 
work ; but in this case, as in many others, those who 
were the pioneers of discovery have been surpassed 
by their successors. 

Mixed motives have formed the basis of nearly 
all colonizing efforts. National glory and individual 

5 



b PREFACE, 

ambition have mingled with the love of adventure, 
the quest after gold, and the missionary spirit. Spain 
and Portugal desired the conversion of " heretics " 
as well as the extension of their respective empires, 
and the acquisition of the wealth of the Indies, in the 
fitting out of their numerous expeditions. They have 
long been left behind as colonizers by Holland, England, 
and France ; and it would be a curious speculation 
to enquii'e into the causes of the decadence of nations 
like Spain and Portugal, which once led the vanguard 
of civilization. 

But our purpose in the series of works of which 
the present forms the initial volume is to trace the 
romance of colonization in special countries, and 
chiefly as that colonization has been effected by Eng- 
land, No colonial empire was ever raised of such vast 
extent as that which acknowledges the sovereignty 
of Queen Victoria in this Diamond Jubilee year of 
grace. The great work of acquiring and building up 
colonies began with us in the seventeenth century ; 
and before the end of the eighteenth Great Britain 
had become the first power in the world as regards 
the extent and value of her colonies, and that not- 
withstanding the serious loss of the United States. 
The acquisitions during the nineteenth century may 
not have been so numerous and important as they 
were in the two preceding centuries, but a greater 
work has been done in consolidating and strengthening 
our hold upon the colonies. 

A rapid survey of Anglo-Saxon colonization affords 
much room for congratulation, if our satisfaction is 
occasionally chastened by a remembrance of the 
severities which have sometimes accompanied con- 
quest. The premier British colony is Newfoundland, 



PREFACE. 7 

which was annexed by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583 ; 
then came the acliievements of the East India 
Company, which was incorporated in 1600 ; and only 
a few years later (1607) succeeds the earliest per- 
manent settlement of Virginia. The Pilgrim Fathers 
began their noble work in 1620 ; and West Indian 
colonization was inaugurated with the occupation of 
Barbadoes in 1625. For three-quarters of a century 
the work proceeded apace in North America, colony 
after colony being added to the British Crown. Then 
other fields began to attract the British, and a new 
period began with the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. 
Before the century closed, France had yielded to us 
in Canada, and also in India, where Clive was more 
fortunate than Dupleix. The wars with Napoleon 
succeeded, and Malta, Mauritius, and many West 
India islands were captured from the French, as well 
as Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch. 
The triumphs of the nineteenth century include the 
consolidation of India under the Crown ; the surprising 
advance of Australia under the impetus of the gold 
discoveries ; the pacification and opening up of New 
Zealand ; the formation of Canada into a federated 
dominion ; the great extension of British influence 
through the whole of Africa ; the commercial growth 
of the Chinese and other settlements ; and the raising 
of the British flag over many new protectorates and 
stations. It is calculated that the population of the 
British colonies has increased more than fourfold since 
the Queen came to the throne, while the trade to and 
from those colonies has multiplied nine or tenfold. In 
the brief period of fourteen years, 1872 to 1886, 
although the value of many individual articles had 
greatly decreased, the imports into the United King- 



8 PREFACE. 

dom from the British colonies and India increased in 
amount from £79,372,853 to X 81,884,043; and in the 
same period the exports to British possessions in- 
creased from £65,609,212 to £82,067,711. No figm-es 
could be more eloquent of colonial progress than these. 

Among all the stories of colonization, none possesses 
a deeper or profounder interest for Englishmen than 
that of the peopling of the United States. It seems 
to contain within itself an epitome of all the incidents 
which have marked the course of colonization else- 
where. It will be the aim of this volume and its 
successor to follow the course of North American 
colonization from the earliest times, and all through 
the chequered periods of development, until the various 
colonies succeeded in achieving their independence, 
and forming themselves into a union, as the United 
States of America. In conclusion, some space will be 
devoted to an explanation of the Constitution of the 
United States, and to tracing briefly the later history 
of the country. 

In the preparation of such a work, a writer is 
necessarily indebted to a great number of authorities ; 
and the author of these volumes has endeavoured 
always to acknowledge his sources of information in 
the various chapters of his narrative. The second 
volume, completing the work, will shortly appear. 

At a later date, it is hoped that other volumes will 
follow, dealing with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 
British India, British Africa, and other colonies. 
Every year that passes only adds to the dignity and 
importance of our colonial empire, and the record of 
its manifold developments consequently becomes a 
study of supreme interest. 

G. B. S. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 

PAGE 

I. EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS .... H 

II. THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS 32 

III. THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY 87 

IV. HOW AMERICA RECEIVED ITS NAME . . . 115 
V. PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLO- 
RATIONS -(21 

VI. JACQUES CARTIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO 144 
VII. ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — PROBISHER AND 

GILBERT -^QA 

VIII. THE EXPEDITIONS OP RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 177 

IX. OPERATIONS OP THE VIRGINIA COMPANY . . 210 

X. SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY . . 250 

XI. COLONIZATION OP MARYLAND 262 

XIT. SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM .... 279 
Xin. THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM 

FATHERS 289 

9 



THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER I. 

EAELY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 

IN the future history of the human race the vast 
American Continent is destined to play a con- 
spicuous part. Its magnificent possibilities are almost 
inconceivable. Limitless in its resources, its mighty 
valleys and fruitful plains are already being opened 
up by the industry and enterprise of its settlers, 
while from the sides of its gigantic mountains mineral 
wealth beyond conception is being extracted. In an 
incredibly brief space of time splendid cities have 
risen as by the spell of an enchanter, and civilization 
already begins to count its teeming and thriving 
millions of population. " Westward the course of 
empire takes its way," wrote Bishop Berkeley a century 
and a half ago, and his utterance now reads like a 
prophecy of the greatness to which the New World 
was subsequently to attain. 

America is frequently regarded as two distinct 
continents, connected by the Isthmus of Darien. 

There is a strange resemblance in the configuration 

11 



12 THE UNITED STATES. 

of the two parts : both are very wide in the north, 
and both gradually taper off as they extend towards 
the south. Each division has a lofty chain of moun- 
tains on the west, and a great central plain declining 
to the south and the north respectively. The southern 
part is watered by two gigantic rivers, the La Plata 
and the Amazon, which may be regarded as the 
counterparts of the great rivers of the north, the 
Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. There is little 
difference between the superficial areas of the two 
continents. North America embracing no less than 
seven million four hundred thousand English square 
miles, and South America six million five hundred 
thousand English square miles. 

It is with the North American Continent that this 
volume is concerned, and chiefly with the colonization 
of that portion of it which comes within the definition 
of the United States territory. America is commonly 
spoken of as the " New World," but as a matter of fact 
it is quite as ancient as any other physical section of 
the planet. Professor L. Agassiz, in his Creological 
Sketches, claims indeed that it is older than any. 
"First-born among the continents," he remarks, 
" though so much later in culture and civilization than 
some of more recent birth, America, so far as her phy- 
sical history is concerned, has been falsely denominated 
the New World. Hers was the first dry land lifted 
out of the waters, hers the first shore washed by the 
ocean tliat enveloped all the earth beside ; and while 
Europe was represented only by islands rising here 
and there above the sea, America already stretched 
an unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the Far 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 13 

West." With regard to the aboriginal inhabitants, 
efforts have recently been made to connect their 
earliest memorials with those of Asia. But while it 
is within the bounds of possibility that means of 
communication between the two continents existed in 
ancient times, the whole question is of so speculative 
a nature that it would be unprofitable to discuss it 
here. Humboldt and other geological authorities 
believed that the summits of the Madeira and the 
Canary Islands were once the western extremity of 
the chain of the Atlas Mountains ; and other writers 
have gone so far as to affirm that these islands, and 
those of the West Indies, are the summits of moun- 
tain chains which once crowned an Atlantic continent 
that was afterwards submerged and disintegrated by 
some great cataclysm. Among other traditions is 
that of Plato, who says that an Egyptian priest 
described to Solon an island called Atlantis, which 
lay far beyond the Pillars of Hercules. This island, 
which was inhabited by a warlike and powerful people, 
was destroyed, said the narrator, by earthquakes and 
floods nine thousand years before his time. 

The aboriginal population of America embraces a 
great variety of peoples, differing in form, stature, 
and complexion. Yet one of the eminent physio- 
logists, Blumenbach, places them all under one class, 
except the Esquimaux, who have close affinity with 
the inhabitants of Northern Asia. Others, like Dr. 
Prichard, have denied this; but when all has been 
said against the theory, there is unquestionably more 
of a common family character in the American Indians 
than prevails amongst the indigenous populations of 



14 THE UNITED STATES. 

Asia and Africa. Humboldt remarks that "the 
Indians of New Spain bear a general resemblance to 
those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. 
We have the same swarthy and copper colour, straight 
and smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, 
with the corner directed upwards towards the temples, 
prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and an expression of 
gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a 
gloomy and severe look. Over a million and a half 
of square leagues, from Cape Horn to the River St. 
Lawrence and Behring's Straits, we are struck at the 
first glance with the general resemblance in the fea- 
tures of the inhabitants. We think we perceive them 
all to be descended from the same stock, notwith- 
standing the prodigious diversity of their languages. 
In the portrait drawn by Yolney of the Canadian 
Indians, we recognize the tribes scattered over the 
Savannahs of the Apure and the Carony. The same 
style of features exists in both Americas." 

Historians have pointed out that the natives of 
North America, when first visited by Europeans four 
centuries ago, belonged as distinctly to the Stone Age 
as the earliest inhabitants of Europe. Shell-heaps 
have been discovered along the American coast from 
Massachusetts to Georgia which Sir Charles Lyell 
declared to be identical with the kitchen refuse-heaps 
of ancient Denmark. Human remains pointing to a 
hoary antiquity have been found at various places, 
and at various periods, in the United States. The 
discovery of earth-mounds and temple-mounds in the 
Valley of the Mississippi and elsewhere points to 
the existence of a race which peopled the North 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 15 

American Continent even before the Indian ; but how- 
ever interesting this may be from the ethnological 
point of view, it does not come within our present 
purpose to discuss it. Whatever may have been the 
nature or character of the aboriginal tribes, one thing 
is universally admitted, that the greater part of the 
native tribes have never progressed beyond the savage 
state in civilization. With respect to the vast number 
of American languages, which amount to something 
like six hundred, philologists have come to the con- 
clusion that they can all be arranged under eight 
or ten divisions, or into forty or fifty families, each 
characterized by affinities sufficiently clear to prove 
that its component members had sprung from a 
common parent. 

The number of Indians, and persons of partial 
Indian descent, still remaining in North America, 
is about six millions ; but probably half these consist 
of Spanisli-speaking half-breeds and others in Mexico 
and the Isthmian republics. The Indians in the 
United States territory, including Alaska, number 
about three hundred and fifteen thousand. For many 
years they were decimated and forced out of existence 
by very cruel methods ; but the American conscience 
has recently been much disturbed on this painful 
subject, so that now it is believed the Indians are 
slowly increasing again in numbers. One-fourth of 
the United States Indians live in the Indian territory, 
and one cause of the arrested process of extinction 
is to be found in the great diminution of inter-tribal 
warfare. 

America was visited by Europeans centuries before 



16 THE UNITED STATES. 

the time of Columbus. In fact, while King Alfred 
was displaying his prowess and his enlightenment in 
Britain, Icelanders settled themselves in Greenland. 
There is some little difference about the exact date, 
but it is a pretty well ascertained fact that this 
settlement took place between 830 and 870 a.d. 
How extraordinary it seems that such an event should 
have attracted scarcely any attention ! The precise 
locality of the Norwegian colonies in Greenland 
cannot now be defined ; but Sir Charles Gieseke, 
who devoted special study to the subject, states that 
memorials of the settlement exist near the southern 
point of the peninsula. A visit was likewise paid to 
the western coast of Greenland ; and this fact has 
been established by an inscription in Runic characters, 
found on a stone four miles beyond Upernavik, at 
the seventy-third parallel. This inscription is to the 
effect that " Erling, the son of Sigvat, and Euride 
Oddsoen, had cleared that place and raised a hillock 
on the Friday after Rogation Day." The date on the 
stone is indistinct ; but Professor Rask, the translator 
of the inscription, fixes it at either 1135 or 1170. 
In any event the Runic characters prove that the 
date was anterior to the Reformation, because that 
mode of writing was afterwards forbidden. In 1828 
Professor C. C. Rafn, a Dane, who had been engaged 
in researches respecting these early voyages, published 
at Baltimore some interesting facts which he had 
ascertained from original documents. For example, 
he announced that America was first discovered in 
985, and that it was repeatedly visited by the Ice- 
landers in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteench cen- 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 17 

turies ; that the embouchure of the St. Lawrence, and 
in particular the Bay of Gaspe, was their principal 
station ; that they had penetrated along the coast as 
far south as Carolina ; and that they introduced a 
knowledge of Christianity amongst the natives. Sub- 
sequently, while not altering the general drift of his 
views, M. Rafn changed his opinion as to the site 
of the Icelandic colony, fixing it at the mouth of the 
River Taunton, which falls into the sea in Narragansett 
Bay, at the north end of Rhode Island. So far as 
anything can be ascertained with certainty which 
occurred a thousand years ago, it is now admitted 
that it was the sons of Eric the Red, an Icelandic 
rover of the seas, who were the first Europeans to set 
foot upon the American Continent. 

In the year 1001 Markland and Vinland, on the 
American coast, were visited and named by Norse 
adventurers. Professor Rafn, in his narrative relating 
to American antiquities, published by the Antiquarian 
Society of Copenhagen in 1837, has vividly described 
this and later Norse voyages. It appears that during 
the year 1000 Leif, the eldest son of Eric the Red, 
bought a ship from a fellow-countryman named Bjorni, 
who had already visited Greenland. Leif besought 
his father to assume command of the expedition, and 
at first the old viking consented ; but being thrown 
from his horse on his way to the ship, he exclaimed, 
" It is not ordained that I should discover any more 
countries than that which we now inhabit, and we 
should make no further attempt in company." With 
that he remained at home, and Leif set forth with 
a crew of thirty-five men, Bjorni probably acting as 

2 



18 THE UNITED STATES. 

pilot. They first reached Newfoundland, which they 
found to be a plain of flat stones, covered with snow 
and ice. Leif called it Helluland, from hella, a fiat 
stone. Next they visited Nova Scotia. They went on 
shore, and found a country covered with woods, with 
low and fiat beaches of white sand. Leif said, " This 
land shall be named after its qualities, and called 
Markland " — that is, woodland. Setting sail again, 
they came to a place which must have been on the 
mainland, and on the coast of New England, but the 
precise point is unknown. 

Some have thought that this landing of the Norse- 
men was at the Island of Nantucket, but others read 
it to mean an island and a cape on the outside of Cape 
Cod. Now, however, it is generally accepted that the 
voyage resulted in a veritable discovery of the coast 
of Rhode Island by the Norsemen, and that they 
landed at some point either in Mount Hope Bay or 
Narragansett Bay. The narrative states that they 
went up a river which came through a lake — the veiy 
description of the waters in that region. They went 
ashore, and built a house, in which they passed the 
winter. By the Scandinavian calendar which they 
kept, it seems that the shortest day gave the sun as 
rising at 7.30 a.m. and setting at 4.30 p.m., thus fixing 
the latitude at a little over 41°, which is equivalent 
to that of Mount Hope Bay. They reported that 
there was " no frost in winter, and little did the grass 
wither there," while " the nature of the country was, 
as they thought, so good, that cattle would not require 
house feeding." 

One day there was great excitement in Leif's camp. 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 19 

A German named Tyrker, who was Leif s foster-father, 
returned from an expedition, gesticulating wildly, and 
almost beside himself. When he was able to give a 
rational account of his proceedings, he said, " I have 
not been much farther off, but still I have something 
to tell of: I found vines and grapes ! " " But is that 
true, my fosterer ? " enquired Leif. " Surely it is 
true," replied he, " for I was bred up in a land where 
there is no want of either vines or grapes." The 
German's statements were veriiied, and the land was 
named Vinland, or Vineland. With his vessel full 
of grapes and timber, Leif returned home in the 
spring ; and because of these discoveries, and his rescue 
of a shipwrecked crew, the leader was known ever 
afterwards as Leif tlie Lucky. 

In the following year, 1002, Leif's brother Thorvald 
set forth on a New England expedition. He pursued 
his brother's tracks, spent the winter in the booths 
which his brother had constructed, and in the spring 
despatched some of his men on explorations to the 
westward. According to the American historians 
Messrs. Bryant and Gay, " they spent the summer in 
tliis pleasant excursion, coasting along the shores 
of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long Island, the 
whole length of the Sound, penetrating probably to 
New York, and finding there another lake, through 
which a river flowed to the sea. They landed on 
many islands ; they beached their boat many times on 
the broad, wide, shallow sands, down to the edge of 
which grew the green grass and the great trees which 
made this pleasant land seem a very garden to these 
wanderers from a country all rocks and ice-mountains 



20 THE UNITED STATES. 

and fields of snow. But once only did they see any 
sign of human habitation, and that was a corn-shed 
built of wood. 

"The next spring (1004) Thorvald started for a 
more extended trip, as he went in his ship. Stand- 
ing first eastward, he then sailed northward along 
the sea-coast of Cape Cod, where a heavy storm 
caught him off a ness (cape), and drove his ship 
ashore, perhaps at Race Point. Here they remained 
a long time to repair damages, putting in a new 
keel ; the old one they set up in the sand, and 
the place they called Kjalarness (Keelness or Kell- 
cape), in commemoration of the disaster. Then they 
cruised along the opposite shore of what is now 
Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and sailed into its 
bays till they came to ' a point of land which stretched 
out and was covered with wood.' ' Here,' said 
Thorvald, ' it is beautiful, and here I would like to raise 
my dwelling.' 

" Before the day was out he looked upon his words 
as prophetic. 

"For the first time the Northmen here met with 
the natives — met them as Europeans so often did in 
subsequent centuries. Looking about them at this 
beautiful spot, they saw in a secluded nook three 
skin-boats set up as tents, beneath which were nine 
Skraellings, on whom they stole unawares, and cap- 
tured eight of them. The ninth escaped ; the eight 
they immediately killed in cold blood. This cruel 
deed done, they lay down to sleep upon the grass 
under the trees ; but it was not to pleasant dreams. 
There came a shout over them, so that they all awoke. 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 21 

" Thus said the shout, ' Wake thou, Thorvald ! and 
all thy companions, if thou wilt preserve life, and 
return to thy ship with all thy men, and leave the 
land without delay.' It was the savage war-whoops 
of the enraged Skraellings, come to avenge the murder 
of their fellows. The Northmen fled to their ship to 
defend themselves behind their battle-screen. 

" ' Fight little against them,' was Thorvald's order, 
mindful now of the mercy he should have shown 
before. When the fight was over, and the Skraellings 
had retired, the answer to Thorvald's enquiry as to 
who was wounded was, ' None.' Then said he, ' I have 
gotten a wound under the arm, for an arrow fled 
between the edge of the ship and the shield, in under 
my arm, and here is the arrow, and it will prove a 
mortal wound to me. Now counsel I ye, that ye get 
ready instantly to depart, but ye shall bear me to that 
cape where I thought it best to dwell ; it may be that 
a true word fell from my mouth, that I should dwell 
there for a time ; there shall ye bury me, and set up 
crosses at my head and feet, and call the place Krossa- 
ness for ever in all time to come.' And it was as he 
said ; he died, and they buried him on the pleasant 
cape that looked out upon the shores and waters of 
Massachusetts Bay. At his head and feet they planted 
crosses, and then sailed back to Yinland to their 
companions with the heavy tidings of the death of 
their young commander. In the spring the colony, 
with another load of grapes and timber, returned to 
Greenland." 

A third son of Eric the Red, Thorstein, sailed for 
Vinland in 1005, but his expedition was unsuccessful. 



22 THE UNITED STATES, 

and he returned to Greenland to die. Two years later 
a more important venture was made by an Icelandic 
merchant of much wealth and ancient lineage named 
Thorfinn. He was surnamed Karlsefne, or the man 
of promise destined to become great. He had married 
Gudrid, the widow of Thorstein. An expedition was 
formed, consisting of Karlsefne's own vessel, a second 
Icelandic vessel fitted out by three other merchants, 
and a third vessel commanded by a Greenlander 
named Thorvard, who had married Freydis, a natural 
daughter of Eric the Red, and one destined to play 
a conspicuous part in colonization. The expedition, 
which consisted of three ships and one hundred and 
forty men and women, set sail in the spring of 1007, 
with the evident intention of making a permanent 
settlement in the new country. They visited Mark- 
land and Helluland, and went beyond Cape Cod. 
Two Scotch scouts were sent out — slaves, fleet of foot, 
who had been given to Leif the Lucky by the King 
of Norway — and these returned, bearing respectively 
a bunch of grapes and an ear of corn. The fleet next 
reached Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard, where 
eider-ducks were found in abundance. During the 
following winter there was great scarcity of pro- 
visions, and one Thorhall, " a bad Christian," who 
had formerly been steward to Eric the Red, aban- 
doned the expedition, and returned home, inducing 
nine others to do the same. Thorhall and his com- 
panions fared badly, however, for they were driven 
ashore by a strong gale on the coast of Ireland, and 
seized by the natives, and sold into slavery. Mean- 
while Karlsefne and his companions proceeded to 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 23 

explore the coast of Rhode Island, following in the 
track of Leif. They spent a winter in Vinland, and 
it was so mild that there was no snow upon the 
ground, and the cattle were able to feed upon the 
green and juicy grasses of the fields. In the spring 
they went away ; but returning in 1009, they began to 
trade with the natives, the Skraellings. Quarrels at 
length ensued with the natives, and we read of one 
great battle in which the wife of Thorvard exhibited 
great bravery, and caused the Skraellings to flee to 
their canoes. But the settlers grew weary of the 
place, and in the spring of 1010 Karlsefne's efforts 
at colonization were wholly abandoned. Two native 
boys whom they took with them spoke of a country 
south of Vinland known as the White Man's Land, 
which was supposed to extend from Chesapeake Bay to 
East Florida, and to be peopled by a colony of Irish. 

The first European child born on the American con- 
tinent was Snorri, the son of Karlsefne and Gudrid, 
who first saw the light in Vinland 1007 a. d. As 
predicted by Gudrid's former husband, a long line of 
distinguished descendants sprang from him, and among 
the later descendants of Snorri were Thorvaldsen, the 
eminent Danish sculptor, and Finn Magnusson, the 
distinguished Danish scholar. 

In the year 1011 the savage and fearless Freydis, 
who had long been determined to make another 
expedition into Vinland, set forth upon a new 
undertaking with two Icelanders named Helgi and 
Finnbogi. There were two vessels, each bearing 
thirty fighting men. The Icelanders first landed, 
and stored their goods in Leif's booths ; but they 



24 THE UNITED STATES. 

were dispossessed by the crafty Freydis, who had 
secreted five more fighting men in her vessel beyond 
the number agreed upon. Still peace was kept for a 
time ; but in the end the evil machinations of Freydis, 
who was a kind of Lady Macbeth, led to a terrible 
tragedy. She made her credulous husband believe 
that she had been beaten and shamefully used by the 
Icelanders when she went to negotiate for their vessel, 
and she spurred Thorvard on to a frightful revenge. 
He and his people slew Helgi and Finnbogi and all 
their companions in cold blood. Five women indeed 
they spared ; but when Freydis beheld this, she took 
an axe and did not rest until she had slain all the 
women by her own hand. She moreover threatened 
to kill any of her own band who revealed what had 
taken place after their return to Greenland. With 
this ill-fated expedition the colonization by the North- 
men in Vinland comes practically to an end. 

There are cumulative proofs that the Northmen did 
effect a settlement on the American coast. Among 
these are the Icelandic Sagas, whose general drift 
there is no reason to distrust. Also Adam of Bremen, 
an ecclesiastical historian, writing about the middle of 
the eleventh century, has a passage in which he avers 
that the King of Denmark informed him " that a 
region called Vinland had been found by many in that 
ocean, because there vines grew spontaneously, making 
the best wine ; for that fruits grow there which were 
not planted, we know, not by mere rumour, but by 
the positive report of the Danes." Further, there are 
the narratives published by the Northern Antiquarian 
Society of Denmark, which narratives were originally 



EARLY HISTOEY AND TRADITIONS. 25 

written between the years 1387 and 1395. These 
chronicles furnish unimpeachable evidence as to the 
early discovery of portions of North America. 

Of voyages westward before the time of Columbus 
there are also various traditions in existence. When 
Lisbon was still held by the Arabs, it is stated that 
eight hardy and well-instructed Arabian sailors " de- 
termined to explore that mighty and mysterious ocean 
which stretched from the coast of Portugal to the 
setting sun, on whose western horizon no sail ever 
crept up against the sky, or disappeared from sight 
beneath its waters." They navigated the ocean many 
days, and at last landed upon an island, where they 
were all made prisoners and taken before the king of 
the country, who ridiculed their hazardous exploit. 
Subsequently they were carried out to sea in a boat, 
and abandoned. They drifted on to the coast of Africa, 
and ultimately returned to Lisbon, where they became 
known as " the strayed ones." It is conjectured that 
these adventurous men must have landed first at the 
Madeira group of islands, and afterwards on those of 
Cape Verde. 

Another tradition is to the effect that Madoc, a 
Welsh prince, discovered America about the year 
1170. The story rests upon the authority of two 
Welsh bards, Guttun Owen and Cynfrig ab Gronow, 
who copied the details from old chronicles of the 
thirteenth century, which were kept in the Abbeys 
of Conway and Strat Flur. The assertion that Madoc 
visited America is not generally accepted as authentic, 
though a careful writer like Humboldt says of similar 
traditions, " I do not share the scorn with which 



26 THE UNITED STATES. 

national traditions are too often treated, and am of 
the opinion that with more research the discovery of 
facts, entirely unknown, would throw much light on 
many historical problems." Various narratives have 
been published claiming that traces exist of Welshmen 
among the Doegs, Mandans, and Mound-builders of 
North America. They are, however, inconclusive and 
contradictory, and are partially due to the fact that 
there was a resemblance between certain Welsh words 
and others used by the Indians. Madoc is alleged to 
have proceeded from Wales to the westward, leaving 
Ireland to the north ; and if he really did make the 
voyage attributed to him, and settled with his com- ^ 
panions in a new land, it is probable that it was not 
Florida — as supposed — but one of the Azores or the 
West India Islands. 

A story of more plausibility and of greater interest 
is that associated with the names of two Venetians, 
Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, who are stated to have 
reached the New World upwards of a century before 
Columbus. The Zeno family were of noble origin, and 
had done much valorous service for the State. It is 
strange, however, that no claim was put forward for 
the brothers Zeno as American discoverers until the 
middle of the sixteenth century, when the fame of 
Columbus and his successors had become well assured. 
It appears that there was published at Venice in 1558 
a volume of letters, edited by one Nicolo Zeno, and 
purporting to be letters written by his ancestors 
Nicolo and Antonio Zeno between the years 1380 
and 1404. These records were subsequently included 
in Ramusio's History of Early Voyages, but not 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 27 

until after his death, and Hakluyt further translated 
and adopted them. The opinion of geographers has 
been very much divided as to whether the story of 
the brothers Zeno was a fraud or not. Among those 
who believed the narrative to be genuine, however, was 
Reinholdt Forster, author of the Northern Voyages, 
and his view has been adopted by Mr. R. H. Major 
in a work published by the Hakluyt Society. 

The narrative is to the effect that in the year 1380 
Nicolo Zeno, who was of an adventurous disposition, 
and wealthy, fitted out a vessel at his own cost, and 
sailed away northward towards England. He was 
cast away upon an inhospitable island, where he and 
his crew were attacked by the natives. They were 
saved by the king of the neighbouring island of 
Porland, who invited them to enter his service. This 
they did, and Nicolo sent home for his brother Antonio. 
The name of the king was Zichmui, and the island 
was called Frisland. If it ever existed, it has long 
ceased to do so ; but those who give credence to the 
narrative suppose that it must have been one of the 
Faroe Islands. Nicolo remained with Zichmui four 
years, and then died ; but Antonio remained for ten 
years. Nicolo assisted in subjugating several of the 
islands in the Icelandic Archipelago, and he also 
voyaged as far westward as Engroneland, which is 
taken to refer to Greenland. There he found a 
monastery of friars of the order of the Preachers, 
and a church dedicated to St. Thomas. There were 
also ingenious hot-water works, supplied from a geyser, 
which provided heat both for cooking and warmth. 
Strange to say, these facts were corroborated nearly 



28 THE UNITED STATES. 

two centuries later by two independent authorities — 
Dethmar Blefkins, a German minister sent from Ice- 
land to Hamburg in 1563, and an English sailor, 
Jacob or James Hall, who was in the service of 
Denmark, and who made several voyages to Iceland 
and Greenland. 

After the death of Nicolo, there arrived in Frisland 
an ancient fisherman who related to the king mar- 
vellous adventures in foreign lands. Many years 
before, four fisher-boats from Frisland were driven 
by a mighty tempest one thousand miles to tlie west- 
ward, and one of them, bearing the narrator and 
his companions, "was wrecked upon an island called 
Estotiland, supposed to be Newfoundland. The ship- 
wrecked crew lived amongst the natives for five years, 
and found them to be highly civilized, while the land 
was a goodly one. To the southward they discovered 
another great and prosperous country, peopled by a 
maritime race, who assisted the adventurers in going 
still farther south to a land called Drogeo. Here, 
however, the natives were dark, fierce, and cruel, and 
they have been identified by some as the forerunners 
of tiie later Indians in the United States. Farther 
again to the south-west a more cultured race were 
found, and these are supposed to have been the people 
of Mexico, who enjoyed a high degree of civilization. 
If these statements are to be relied upon, the 
Norsemen would seem to have travelled down the 
Atlantic coast, and along the whole of the northern 
and part of the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 
But such a pre-dating of Columbus and the other 
great navigators can scarcely be accepted as genuine. 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 29 

Still, fired by what he had heard, we are assured 
that Zichinui fitted out a large expedition, which lie 
commanded himself, and which set out for the west- 
ward. First, they came to an island called Icaria, 
the people being named Icari, after the first king of 
the place, who was alleged to be the son of Daedalus, 
a king of Scotland. The prince several times attempted 
to effect a landing, but the people were extremely 
hostile, and repulsed him. Zichmui consequently left 
Icaria, and steered farther to the westward. After 
some days they made a harbour, round a neck of land, 
which they called Capo di Trin. Tlie people of the 
land were small in stature, and dwelt in caves. There 
was an active volcano in the centre of the island. 
Zichmui determined to remain ; but he sent Antonio 
Zeno back to Frisland, with most of the sailors who had 
accompanied him. Here all knowledge of the prince 
ends, and nothing is known as to what became of him. 

The geographical objections to this story are regarded 
as insurmountable. " It is difficult to believe," as 
Messrs. Bryant and Gay justly remark, "that any actual 
navigator should have described so many islands that 
had no existence in the places where he put them, 
both in the narrative and on a map ; and quite as hard 
to believe that they have all been since sunk in the 
sea, if they ever had an existence. If it is assumed 
that the requisite number, and the conquest and dis- 
covery of those referred to, may be found by looking 
for them among the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, or 
the Hebrides, it is hard to reconcile such a suppo- 
sition with the known facts of history : that Norway, 
at the end of the fourteenth century, was governed, 



30 THE UNITED STATES. 

not by a king, but by a queen, Margaret ; that the 
Orkneys and Shetland Isles were never wrested from 
that crown, but belonged to it till late in the fifteenth 
century ; that Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, held 
possession of the islands of that name as a loyal 
subject of Norway at the very time that Zichmui is 
said to have conquered Frisland ; that the Hebrides 
have been in continual possession of Scotland since 
the latter part of the thirteenth century. While it 
is exceedingly difficult to adjust the main statements 
of the narrative to any reasonable theory consistent 
with their truth, the meagre information it gives in 
regard to the Western Continent was possibly accessible 
from various sources when the letters were published. 
The most rational conclusion, therefore, seems to be 
that if the story were not a clumsy attempt to patch 
up an account of a voyage, some record of which had 
been retained in mutilated and unintelligible frag- 
ments of old letters, then it was a bold, but still 
clumsy, fabrication, whereby it was hoped that the 
glory of the great discovery might be snatched from 
Spain and Columbus. In nothing, in either case, is 
that clumsiness so apparent as in the adaptation of 
the Grecian names and fables of Daedalus and Icarus 
to persons and places in the frozen North." 

One more claim to early American exploration — and 
that more ancient than any which have been discussed 
— remains to be considered. The Chinese Year-books, 
in whicli the events of many centuries are recorded, 
affirm that a Buddhist priest named Hoei-shin voyaged 
many thousands of miles in the year 499 a.d., and 
came to a country which he called Fusang. Con- 



EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 31 

jectures have been raised whether the land referred 
to was Alaska, Kamtchatka, or Siberia. The traveller 
found a cultured people, who used as beasts of burden 
horses, oxen, and stags, which were harnessed to 
waggons. Copper, gold, and silver were plentiful, 
but little valued. There was a king entitled Ichi, 
and a nobility ; and the people were peaceable. They 
were all Buddhists, for they had been converted by 
five beggar-monks about thirty years before. 

While it is quite possible that Chinese navigators 
may thus early have sailed across the Pacific Ocean, 
the best Oriental scholars have come to the conclusion 
that the author of this remarkable narrative was 
neither more nor less than a Chinese Ananias. Yet 
there are a few who think it possible that the traveller 
reached Mexico, while others have fixed the territory 
described as the Island of Saghalien or Japan. But 
the whole story is so disjointed and imperfect that 
it is the wisest policy to regard it as fictitious. 
Certainly, history must be based upon sounder facts 
and conclusions than we have here. 

Thus far much of our information concerning the 
exploration of the American Continent is speculative, 
though there is undoubtedly mixed with it the element 
of truth. That the Norsemen explored portions of 
North America in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is 
unquestionable, but no permanent result followed their 
labours. The world soon forgot them and their voyages, 
and nothing more was done until the Spanish Peninsula 
took the lead by sending its citizens forth into unknown 
seas, in quest of the El Dorado which was believed to 
exist beyond the golden gate of the New World. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 

IN Christopher Colnmbns we have one of the great 
makers of the world's history. Unworthy at- 
tempts have sometimes been made to deprive him of 
the glory dne to his name, bnt they have all signally 
failed ; and it may be assumed that his claims as 
the first real discoverer of the American Continent 
will now go down unchallenged till the end of time. 

The birthplace of Homer has been warmly con- 
tested, and it is a singular circumstance that neither 
the place of Columbus's nativity nor the year of 
his birth can be positively and absolutely assigned. 
But the best authorities, mcluding his descendant 
the Duke de Veragua, believe that his birth occurred 
about the year 1436, though other investigators give 
the date as about ten years later. To the city of 
Genoa is generally awarded the honour of having 
given birth to the great discoverer, and this conclusion 
is supported by the discovery of the will in which 
Columbus bequeathed part of his property to the 
Bank of Genoa. " Thence I came, and there was I 
born," he has himself said. 

From the fact that his father was one Domenico 
Colombo, a wool-comber, his humble origin has always 

32 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 33 

been inferred ; and the explorer's son Ferdinand, in 
his biography of his father, gives very meagre details 
of his early life. But Sir Arthur Helps has pointed 
out that the family were not necessarily of very 
humble origin, seeing that Genoa was a city of 
traders ; and indeed two of Christopher's ancestors 
were naval commanders of distinction in the maritime 
service of Genoa and France. No doubt there was 
but little wealth in the family, but it had honourable 
traditions. The name of Christopher Columbus is 
the Latinized form of the Italian Cristoforo Colombo, 
and when the discoverer went to Spain he adopted the 
Spanish form of it, Cristobal Colon. 

In early life Christopher laboured at his father's 
trade of wool-combing, but he also attended school 
for a time, and was likewise for a brief period a 
student at the University of Pavia, where he was 
grounded in a knowledge of mathematics and natural 
science. Bat the sea was from the first his great 
object of ambition, and he entered upon his adven- 
turous career when only in his fifteenth year. He 
was doubtless fired by the deeds of Prince Henry, the 
famous navigator. 

Prince Henry was, up to the appearance of Columbus, 
th-e most celebrated of modern explorers. He was 
a son of John I. of Portugal and Philippa, the 
daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. 
He was born in 1394, and first distinguished himself 
at the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. But from this 
time forth his thoughts were taken up with maritime 
discovery, and it was while prosecuting the war 
against the Moors of Africa that his sailors reached 



34 THE UMTED STATES. 

parts of the ocean heretofore nnvisitecl and unknown. 
The Prince fixed his abode at Sagres, in Algarve, 
near Cape St. Vincent, and here he erected an 
observatory, to which he attached a school for the 
instruction of sons of the nobility in the sciences 
necessary to navigation. Many of his pnpils were 
despatched on voyages of discovery, and these resulted 
at last in the dis-covery of the Madeira Islands in 
1418. But the discovery was not of much value 
for a long time ; for the settlers, in clearing the 
wood, kindled a fire which burned, it is said, for 
seven years. The Prince's thoughts were next directed 
towards the auriferous coasts of Guinea, of which 
he had gained some knowledge from the Moors ; 
and in 1433 one of his mariners sailed round Cape 
Nun, until then regarded as the farthest point of 
the earth, and took possession of the coasts as far 
south as Cape Bojador. 

In 1434 the Prince sent forth a larger vessel than 
any which he had as yet fitted out. It first touched 
a point one hundred and twenty miles beyond Cape 
Bojador, and ultimately, in 1440, Cape Blanco was 
reached. Henry had up to this period borne all 
the expense of his undertakings himself; but hence- 
forth self-supporting societies were formed under his 
patronage and guidance, and the whole nation was 
at last moved with enthusiasm in a cause which at 
first was treated with studious neglect. At the same 
time the Prince did not relax his own efforts, and 
in 1446 one of his captains, Nuno Tristam, doubled 
Cape Verde, in Senegambia, while two years later 
Gonzalez Vallo discovered three of the Azores. The 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 35 

Pope, Martin V., had already granted to the Por- 
tuguese Crown all the possessions which should 
be conquered from Cape Bojador to the Indies, 
together with plenary indulgence for those who should 
die while engaged in such conquests. The terms of 
this grant, however, were modified after the Spanish 
discoveries of Columbus and his successors. 

Prince Henry always had the Indies in view, as a 
land of unparalleled wealth and splendour. Visions 
of it rose before him again and again, but he was not 
destined to discover the far-famed Khubla Khan. He 
died in 1460, after learning with satisfaction the news 
that his mariners had reached as far south as Sierra 
Leone. One writer remarks that Prince Henry was 
"hardly a less personage than Columbus. They had 
different elements to contend in. But the man whom 
princely wealth and position, and the temptation to 
intrigue which there must have been in the then state 
of the Portuguese Court, never induced to swerve from 
the one purpose which he maintained for forty years, 
unshaken by popular clamour, however sorely vexed 
he might be with inward doubts and misgivings ; who 
passed laborious days and watchful nights in devotion 
to this one purpose, enduring the occasional short- 
comings of his agents with that forbearance which 
springs from a care for the enterprise in hand, so deep 
as to control private vexation (the very same motive 
which made Columbus bear so mildly with insult and 
contumely from his followers), — such a man is worthy 
to be put in comparison with the other great discoverer 
who worked out his enterprise through poverty, neglect, 
sore travail, and the vicissitudes of courts. Moreover, 



36 THE UNITED STATES. 

it must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was 
undoubtedly the father of modern geographical 
discovery, and that the result of his exertions must 
have given much impulse to Columbus, if it did not 
first move him to his great undertaking. After the 
above euloginm on Prince Henry, -which is not the 
least more than he merited, his kinsmen, the con- 
temporary Portuguese monarchs, should come in for 
their share of honourable mention, as they seem to 
have done their part in African discovery with much 
vigour, without jealousy of Prince Henry, and with high 
and noble aims. It would also be but just to include, 
in some part of this praise, the many brave captains 
who distinguished themselves in these enterprises." 

Columbus was imbued by the same idea as Prince 
Henry. From the first it was the gorgeous Eastern 
empire which he had in view, and it was his main 
object, even when his discoveries resulted in a wholly 
different way from what he anticipated. Returning 
to the period of his youth, we find that he was a 
fighting adventurer, like most of the mariners of his 
time, and among other expeditions he engaged in was 
one against Naples while in the service of the good King 
Ren6, Count of Provence. On one occasion he was 
sent by Ren^ to Tunis to intercept a Venetian galley. 
The crew were unwilling to hazard an engagement 
when they learnt that the galley was convoyed by three 
other vessels. Columbus feigned to acquiesce in their 
view, but he so artfully altered his compass that 
the vessel succeeded in its purpose, and arrived at 
Carthagena the following morning, when the crew 
expected to put in at Marseilles. 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 37 

There are years in his life concerning which infor- 
mation is scant ; but we know that a man of his 
temperament could never remain idle. As he himself 
said in middle life, " I have been seeking out the 
secrets of nature for forty years, and wherever ship 
has sailed there have I voyaged." In course of time 
he traversed a large part of the known world, visiting 
England, and making his way to Iceland and Friesland. 
For a time Columbus was actually engaged in selling 
books in Genoa, but about the year 1470 he arrived 
at Lisbon. His son states that he had sailed with 
Colombo el Mozo — nephew of the first admiral in the 
Colon family — on a cruise to intercept some Venetian 
merchantmen on their way home from Flanders. A 
battle began at break of day, off Cape St. Vincent, 
which lasted till nightfall. The vessel on which 
Columbus held command engaged a huge Venetian 
galley, which after a desperate struggle caught fire. 
The flames spread to the privateer, and the combatants 
on both sides sought safety in the sea. Columbus 
managed to support himself on an oar, and though 
almost exhausted he succeeded in gaining the land, 
which was about six miles distant. As his son 
remarked, God preserved him for greater things. 

A few years after this he met and married Donna 
Felij^a, daughter of an Italian named Parestrello, 
who had been governor of Porto Santo under Prince 
Henry. Columbus retired for awhile to this island 
of Porto Santo, where his wife had inherited a small 
property, and where their son Diego was born. He 
studied the papers and maps left by his father- in-law, 
and was constantly brought into association with 



38 THE UNITED STATES. 

persons interested in maritime discovery. The pre- 
cise date when he conceived the design of discovering, 
not a new continent, but a western route to Asia, 
cannot be determined, but it was probably about 
1474. We have now to picture him during a period 
of ten years making proposals of discovery to Genoa, 
Portugal, Venice, France, and England. His ideas 
were regarded by several of these governments as 
the extravagant demands of a mere adventurer. The 
King of Portugal, however, did incline a favourable 
ear to him. He referred the project to a maritime 
junta and his committee of council on geographical 
affairs ; and when both bodies reported it as visionary, 
he sent out a caravel, under the pretext of taking 
provisions to the Cape de Verde Islands, but with 
secret instructions to try the route proposed by 
Columbus. This act of treachery was due to the 
Bishop of Ceuta, the chief opponent of Columbus in 
the council. The pilots, after sailing several days, 
lost courage, and returned with the report that no 
indications of land had been seen. The King was 
still not inclined to give up the scheme, although it 
had been mercilessly ridiculed by his council and 
other sceptics. 

Columbus, however, perceiving at last that there 
was no hope, and having lost his wife and jDrojJcrty, 
left Lisbon for Spain, accompanied by his son Diego, 
the only issue left by his wife Donna Felipa. He 
applied to the rich and powerful Spanish Dukes of 
Medina Sidonia and Medina Cell. The latter grandee 
maintained Columbus for two years in his house, and 
would have entertained his proposal himself but that 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 39 

he thought it belonged to the Queen to do so. The 
Duke accordingly gave Columbus a letter to the 
Queen commending the enterprise, but the times were 
uupropitious, for Spain was engaged in a deadly war 
with the Moors. But the adventurer found a friend 
in the Treasurer of the Household, Alouzo de Quin- 
tanilla, who obtained a hearing for him from the 
Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella listened 
with interest, and the matter was referred to the 
Queen's Confessor, Fra Hernando de Talavera, who 
was afterwards Archbishop of Granada. Fra Hernando 
summoned a junta of cosmographers, which was con- 
vened at Salamanca in the summer of 1487. So far 
everything seemed promising, but the prejudices of 
centuries were rooted in the breasts of the cosmo- 
graphers. The members of the junta were chiefly 
clerical, and they bombarded Columbus with theo- 
logical objections. They cited Scripture to refute his 
theory of the spherical nature of the earth, and 
invoked the Fathers of the Church to overthrow the 
" foolish idea of the existence of antipodes ; of people 
who walk, opposite to us, with their heels upwards 
and their heads hanging down ; where everything is 
topsy-turvy, where the trees grow with their branches 
downwards, and where it rains, hails, and snows 
upwards." Finally, the bigoted junta decided that 
the project was " vain and impossible, and tliat it 
did not belong to the majesty of such great princes 
to determine anything upon such weak grounds of 
information." 

Ferdinand and Isabella do not seem to have agreed 
with the junta on the scientific aspect of the question ; 



40 THE UNITED STATES. 

and desiring to dismiss Columbus gently, "they 
merely said that, with the wars at present on their 
hands, and especially that of Granada, they could not 
undertake any new expenses ; but when that war was 
ended, they would examine his plan more carefully." 

For five weary years, according to some authorities, 
Columbus waited upon the Court of Spain. He was 
treated with consideration, although he did not gain 
his grand object, and he followed the sovereigns in 
their war movements. He was regarded as a public 
functionary, and received grants from the treasury 
for his private expenses. But Las Casas, who knew 
something of neglect and contumely, speaks of the 
" terrible, continuous, painful, prolix battle " which 
Columbus waged with adverse circumstances. His 
heart, however, was cheered by the devotion of his 
second wife, Beatriz Enriquez, whom he met and 
married at Cordova. Their union appears to have 
been an extremely happy one, and there is no evidence 
that Beatriz ever attempted to dissuade her husband 
from his great purpose. 

Columbus further met with a powerful friend in 
Juan Perez de la Marchena, Superior of the Monastery 
of La Kabida, in Andalusia. This excellent man 
became so deeply interested in his friend's glorious 
project that he detained him as a guest, and sent 
for the learned physician of Palos, Garcia Hernandez, 
to discuss the scheme. Now, for the first time, it 
was listened to with admiration, and it also seems to 
have greatly impressed Alouzo Pinzon, the chief ship- 
owner of Palos. Dr. Hernandez, who was skilled 
in physical science, appears to have become a warm 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 41 

admirer of Columbus and his project. Sir Arthur 
Helps observes : 

"It is worthy of notice that a person who appears 
only once, as it were, in a sentence in history should 
have exercised so much influence upon it as Garcia 
Hernandez, who was probably a man of far superior 
attainments to those around him, and was in the habit 
of deploring, as such men do, his hard lot in being 
placed where he could be so little understood. Now, 
however, he was to do more at one stroke than many 
a man who has been all his days before the world. 
Columbus had abandoned his suit at Court in disgust, 
and had arrived at the monastery before quitting Spain 
to fetch his son Diego, whom he had left with Juan 
Perez to be educated. All his griefs and struggles he 
confided to Perez, who could not bear to hear of his 
intention to leave the country for France or England, 
and to make a foreign nation greater by allowing it 
to adopt his project. The three friends — the monk, 
the learned physician, and the skilled cosmographer 
— discussed together the propositions so unhappily 
familiar to the last-named member of their little 
council. The affection of Juan Perez and the learning 
of Hernandez were not slow to follow in the track 
which the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made 
out before them ; and they became, no doubt, as 
convinced as Columbus himself of the feasibility of 
his undertaking. The difficulty, however, was not 
in becoming believers themselves, but in persuading 
those to believe who would have power to further the 
enterprise. Their discussions upon this point ended 
in the conclusion that Juan Perez, who was known 



42 THE UNITED STATES. 

to the Queen, having acted as her confessor, should 
write to her Highness. He did so, and the result 
was favourable. The Queen sent for him, heard what 
he had to say, and in consequence remitted money to 
Columbus to enable him to come to Court and renew 
his suit. He attended the Court again ; negotia- 
tions were resumed, but were again broken off on the 
ground of the largeness of the conditions which he 
asked for. His opponents said that these conditions 
were too large if he succeeded ; and if he should not 
succeed, and the conditions should come to nothing, 
they thought that there was an air of trifling in grant- 
ing such conditions at all. And, indeed, they were very 
large — namely, that he was to be made an admiral 
at once, to be appointed viceroy of the countries he 
should discover, and to have an eighth of the profits 
of the expedition. The only probable way of ac- 
counting for the extent of these demands, and his 
perseverance in making them, even to the risk of total 
failure, is that the discovering of the Indies was but 
a step in his mind to greater undertakings, as they 
seemed to him, which he had in view, of going to 
Jerusalem with an army and making another crusade. 
For Columbus carried the chivalrous ideas of the twelfth 
century into the somewhat self-seeking fifteenth." 

Again the negotiations failed, however, and Columbus 
had resolved to set out for France, when Juan Perez 
and Alonzo de Qaintanilla procured him a hearing 
from Cardinal Mendoza. The Cardinal favoured the 
scheme, and Columbus ofi'ered to pay an eighth part 
of the expenses of the expedition, hoping this would 
conciliate his opponents ; but all was in vain. It was 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 43 

now Jannary, 1492 ; and the great adventnrer, seeing 
his cause to be hopeless in Spain, actually started for 
France. This at once determined Luis de Santaugel, 
receiver of ecclesiastical revenues of the Crown of 
Aragon, and one strongly on the side of Columbus, 
to throw himself at the feet of Queen Isabella. This 
he did, and addressed her with great fervour, lamenting 
that her lofty desire for great things should be wanting 
on this occasion, and hinting that the enterprise might 
fall under the patronage of other princes. He made 
light of the vaticinations of the cosmographers, and 
extolled Columbus as a man of great ideas. Some 
princes had already acquired lasting fame in this way. 
Finally, he pointed out that the whole cost of the 
expedition would only be a million of maravedis — 
equal to about £308 of the current English coinage 
— and the undertaking ought not to be abandoned 
for so small a sum. Quintanilla supported these 
arguments, and Isabella yielded, but she said that the 
enterprise must wait until the war drain upon the 
finances had ceased, or she would pledge her jewels 
to raise the necessary funds if the scheme must be 
carried out at once. 

Santangel himself agreed to advance the money 
required, and the Queen despatched a messenger to 
bring back Columbus to the Court. He was overtaken 
about two leagues from Granada, and returned to 
Santa ¥6, where the sovereigns were encamped. He 
was well received by Isabella, though not very warmly 
by Ferdinand, and an agreement was drawn up by 
the royal secretary Coloma. King Ferdinand seems to 
have been imbued with the careful views of Henry VII., 



44 THE UNITED STATES. 

who temporized with Christopher's brother, Bartholo- 
mew Cokimbus, when he endeavoured to enlist English 
sympathy for the same project. Although Bartholomew 
was unsuccessful, however, there was plenty of English 
enterprise even before Columbus. A letter written 
by the Spanish ambassador in London, in July, 1498, 
stated that merchants of Bristol had for the past seven 
years sent out annually ships in search of the Island of 
Brazil and the Seven Cities. If true, this is extremely 
interesting, for it would show that England was already 
searching for the New World, though unsuccessfully, 
before the first voyage of Columbus. 

Matters being satisfactorily arranged between Fer- 
dinand and Isabella and Columbus, an agreement to 
the following effect was concluded : 

"The favours which Christopher Columbus has 
asked from the King and Queen of Spain, in recom- 
pense of the discoveries which he has made in the 
ocean seas, and as recompense for the voyage which 
he is about to undertake, are the following : 

" 1. He wishes to be made admiral of the seas and 
countries which he is about to discover. He desires 
to hold this dignity during his life, and that it should 
descend to his heirs. 

" This request is granted hy the King and Queen. 

" 2. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made viceroy 
of all the continents and islands. 

" Granted by the King and Queen. 

" 3. He wishes to have a share, amounting to a 
tenth part, of the profits of all merchandise, be it 
pearls, jewels, or any other things, that may be found, 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 45 

gained, bonght, or exported from the countries which 
he is to discover. 

" Granted hy the King and Queen. 

" 4. He wishes in his quality of admiral to be made 
sole judge of all mercantile matters that may be the 
occasion of dispute in the countries which he is to 
discover. 

" Granted by the King and Queen, on the condition, 
however, that this jurisdiction should belong to the 
office of admiral, as held by Don Enriquez and other 
admirals. 

" 5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the right 
to contribute the eighth part of the expenses of all 
ships which traffic with the new countries, and in 
return to earn the eighth part of the profits. 

" Granted by the King and Queen. 

" Santa Fb, in the Vega op Geanada, 
'■'Api-il 17, 1492." 

This agreement is signed by the secretary Coloma 
and written by Almazan. 

Then there is a sort of passport or commendatory 
letter, intended for presentation to the Grand Khan, 
Prester John, or any other Oriental potentate at whose 
territories Columbus might arrive : 

" Fekdinand and Isabella to King , 



" The sovereigns have heard that he and his 
subjects entertain great love for them and for Spain. 
They are, moreover, informed that he and his subjects 
very much wish to hear news from Spain ; and send, 



46 THE UNITED STATES. 

therefore, their admiral, Christopher Colnmhiis, who 
will tell them that they are in good health and perfect 
prosperity. 

" Geanada, Ajml 30, 1492." 

In redeeming his promise, Santangel, in May, 1492, 
advanced one million one hundred and forty thousand 
maravedis, "being the sum he lent for paying the 
caravels which their Highnesses ordered to go as 
the armada to the Indies, and for paying Christopher 
Columbus, who goes in the said armada." The 
municipality of Palos was requisitioned for two vessels, 
being in disgrace with the council, and a proclamation 
of immunity from civil and criminal process was issued 
to persons taking part in the expedition. This addition 
of criminals and runaway debtors to his crew formed 
in itself a difficulty for Columbus. Then the mariners 
of Palos of the better class held aloof, and it required 
all the persuasion of Juan Perez and the Pinzons 
before the undertaking was completed. At length 
three vessels were manned with ninety mariners, and 
provisioned for a year. The ships were small, probably 
not exceeding one hundred tons burden each — light 
craft with which to brave the dangers of the Atlantic. 
Columbus commanded the Santa Maria, which was 
the only vessel decked throughout ; and the others were 
the Pinta, commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and 
the Nina, commanded by Vicente Yanez Pinzon. 

It must have been a memorable day when the crews, 
having been confessed, set sail on the 3rd of August, 
1492, from the Bar of Saltes, with the intention of 
making for the Canary Islands. The ideas of the 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 47 

commander were unfathomable to many of the men, 
and distrusted by others. The convoy safely reached 
the Canary Islands ; bnt here the admiral — for such 
henceforth Columbus is styled — was obliged to remain 
for some time, refitting the Finta, which had unshipped 
her rudder, etc. But on the 6th of September the 
squadron set sail from Gomera. In the course of 
a week the variations of the needle began to cause 
the crews much concern, and they were further dis- 
turbed by having to cut their way through immense 
plains of seaweed. Columbus was sometimes obliged 
to use subterfuge to keep them on their course. Land 
was occasionally seen ; but as the admiral believed it 
to belong only to a group of islands, he determined 
to press on for the Indies. Yet some of the sailors 
had already come to the conclusion " that it would 
be their best plan to throw him quietly into the sea, 
and say he unfortunately fell in, while he stood 
absorbed in looking at the stars." Las Casas reports 
Columbus as saying, " Very needful for me was this 
contrary wind, for the people were very much tormented 
with the idea that there were no winds on these seas 
that could take them back to Spain." 

Then there came delusive signs of land, which the 
presence of birds and fish served to intensify. But 
no land appeared, and the mariners began to give 
way to despair. Columbus is found saying on the 
3rd of October, " that he did not choose to stop beating 
about last week during those days that they had such 
signs of land, although he had knowledge of there 
being certain islands in that neighbourhood, because 
he would not suffer any detention, since his object 



48 THE UNITED STATES. 

was to go to the Indies; and if he should stop on the 
way, it would show a want of mind." It was a time 
of severe trial for Columbus, who was surrounded 
by a mocking baud on the vei'ge of mutiny. " At 
last came the 11th of October, and with it indubitable 
signs of land. The diary mentions their finding on 
that day a table-board and a carved stick, the carving 
apparently wrought by some iron instrnment. More- 
over, the men in one of the vessels saw a branch of 
a haw tree with fruit on it. Now, indeed, they must 
be close to land. The sun went down upon the same 
weary round of waters which for so long a time their 
eyes had ached to see beyond, when, at ten o'clock, 
Columbus, standing on the poop of his vessel, saw 
a light, and called to him, privately, Pedro Gutierrez, 
a groom of the King's Chamber, who saw it also. 
Then they called Rodrigo Sanchez, who had been 
sent by their Highnesses as overlooker. I imagine 
him to have been a cold and cautions man, of the 
kind that are sent by jealous states to accompany 
and curb great generals, and who are not usually 
much loved by them. Sanchez did not see the light 
at first, because, as Columbus says, he did not stand 
in the place where it could be seen ; but at last even 
he sees it, and it may now be considered to have been 
seen officially. It appeared like a candle that went 
up and down, and Don Christopher did not doubt 
that it was true light, and that it was on land; and 
so it proved, as it came from people passing with 
lights from one cottage to another." 

A pension of ten thousand maravedis had been 
promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the man who 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 49 

should first sight land. The Pinta being the foremost 
vessel, it was from her deck, at two in the morning, 
that one Rodrigo de Triana first saw land. For some 
reason or other this poor fellow did not get the reward, 
and it is said that he afterwards went to Africa in 
a fever of disappointment, and became a Mahometan. 
The pension was awarded to the admiral, and it was 
religiously paid him to the day of his death. Herrera, 
the historian, remarks that Columbus " saw light in 
the midst of darkness, signifying the spiritual light 
v/hich was introduced among these barbarous people, 
God permitting that, the war being finished with the 
Moors, seven hundred and twenty years after they 
had set foot in Spain, this work (the conversion of 
the Indians) should commence, so that the Princes 
of Castile and Leon might always be occupied 
in bringing infidels to the knowledge of the Holy 
Catholic Faith." 

This language is similar to that which Columbus 
himself used in a general sense, in an address to 
Ferdinand and Isabella, which prefaces his diary. 
After referring to the conclusion of the Moorish 
War, he reminded their Highnesses how that he had 
given them information of the lands of India, and 
of a prince called the Grand Khan, who had sent 
ambassadors to Rome, praying for doctors to instruct 
him in the faith, but that none had been sent, so 
that people were perishing in idolatry. He added, 
" Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, 
lovers and furtherers of the Christian Faith, and 
enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all idolatries 
and heresies, thought to send me, Christopher 

4 



50 THE UNITED STATES. 

Columbus, to the aforesaid provinces of India to see 
the aforesaid princes, the cities and lands, and the 
disposition of them, and of everything about them, 
and the way that should be taken to convert them to 
our holy Faith." The writer likewise referred to the 
expulsion of the Jews from Spain as another evidence 
of the zeal of the Queen for the Catholic Faith. Even 
in the matter of slavery he perceived the same 
religious spirit, which permeated all the actions of 
Isabella. Sincere, but lamentably mistaken in some 
things, must be the verdict passed upon her. 

Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, was an epoch- 
making day in the history of the human race. On 
that day Columbus first set foot upon one of the 
islands belonging to the New World. It was one of 
the Bahama group of islands which was thus dis- 
covered, bat as to which particular island there was 
long great difference of opinion. Humboldt thought 
it was Cat Island, called by the natives Guanahavi, 
and by the Spaniards San Salvador. Other writers 
have claimed that it was on that beautiful spot where 
Columbus wished to be buried, and where his remains 
reposed for centuries — the island of St. Domingo. 
Later investigations certainly showed that Columbus 
landed on Cat, Samana, or Watling's Island. These 
investigations, pursued chiefly in the explorer's log- 
book, indicated somewhat strongly that the admiral's 
landing-place was the last-named island, which is 
regarded as the true San Salvador. There is now 
no reason to suppose that the world will ever arrive 
at a more accurate knowledge of the landing of 
Columbus on the American Continent. 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 51 

The admiral, clad in complete armour, and carrying 
in his hand the royal banner of Spain, was the first 
to descend npon the shore of the island, which he 
found to be very fruitful and like a garden full of 
trees. The other captains closely followed him, each 
also bearing a banner with a green cross depicted 
upon it, and with the initials of Ferdinand and 
Isabella surmounted by their respective crowns. The 
islanders must have stood in silent amazement before 
such a visitation. We are assured that, on touching 
land, Columbus and all the Spaniards who were with 
him fell upon their knees, and with tears expressive 
of the deepest joy, poured forth their "immense 
thanksgivings to Almighty God." Then the great- 
hearted Columbus pardoned and comforted those who 
had caused him such sorrow and suffering during the 
voyage, and who were now filled with remorse for 
their murmurings and reproaches. 

With all due legal formalities, Columbus took 
possession of the island in the name of the Spanish 
monarchs, and called it San Salvador. The Indians 
were astonished at the looks of the Spaniards and the 
whiteness of their skins ; and more than all they 
marvelled at the leader of the expedition, who formed 
an imposing figure as he stood with a crimson scarf 
thrown over his armour. In giving his impressions 
afterwards of the islanders, Columbus wrote : " Be- 
cause they had much friendship for us, and because 
I knew they were people that would deliver themselves 
better to the Christian Faith, and be converted more 
through love than by force, I gave to some of them 
some coloured caps, and some strings of glass beads 



52 THE UNITED STATES. 

for their necks, and many other things of little value, 
with which they were delighted, and were so entirely 
onrs that it was a marvel to see. The same after- 
wards came swimming to the ships' boats where we 
were, and brought us parrots, cotton threads in balls, 
darts and many other things, and bartered them with 
us for things which we gave them, such as bells and 
small glass beads. In fine, they took and gave all of 
whatever they had with goodwill. But it appeared 
to me they were a people very poor in everything. 
They went totally naked, as naked as their mothers 
brought them into the world." The Indians were 
well made, yellow in colour, and of good countenances, 
but they painted themselves. They had no knowledge 
of arms ; and when swords were shown to them, they 
took hold of them by the blades and cut themselves. 
Columbus came to the conclusion that "they ought 
to make faithful servants, and of good understanding, 
for I see that very quickly they repeat all that is said 
to them, and I believe they would easily be converted 
to Christianity, for it appeared to me that they had 
no creed." 

More tractable and intelligent still were the natives 
found upon another island, and the admiral's scouts 
reported that their houses were the best they had yet 
seen. They were constructed like pavilions, " very 
large, and appeared as royal tents, without an arrange- 
ment of streets, except one here and there, and within 
they were very clean, and well swept, and their 
furniture very well arranged. All these houses were 
made of i)alm branches, and were very beautiful. Our 
men found in these houses many statues of women, 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 53 

and several heads fashioned like masks, and very well 
wrought. I do not know whether they have these for 
the love of the beautiful, or for purposes of worship." 
The Indians had excellent nets and fishing tackle, 
and there were tame birds and dogs which did not 
bark. Columbus adds that mermaids were found on 
the coasts, but they were " not so like ladies as they 
are painted." 

This voyage resulted in a knowledge being acquired 
of that weed which has ever since been a source of 
delight to the individual and of profit to almost every 
European nation. Since tobacco was introduced, 
Europeans have cheerfully paid the taxation involved 
by its consumption. It appears that two discoverers 
whom the admiral sent out from the Puerto de Mares 
found the natives indulging in a peculiar kind of 
fumigation. They absorbed into the mouth through a 
charred stick the fumes of certain herbs wrapped in 
a dry leaf, which outer covering was called " tabaco." 
The Indians told Las Casas that the process took away 
fatigue, and he came across Spaniards addicted to the 
same habit on the Island of Hispaniola, who told him 
that they were not able to leave it off. This discovery 
of tobacco proved eventually more productive to the 
Spanish Crown than the gold discoveries of the Indies. 

Columbus never lost sight of his idea of discovering 
Khubla Khan, the Khan of Khans. When the Indians 
told him of a king in the south who had much gold, 
and kept repeating the word^Cubanacan, Cubanacan," 
he concluded that they referred to the great Khan, 
whereas they were only speaking of the middle of 
Cuba. The fact is he was full of his Marco Polo and 



64 THE UNITED STATES. 

other travellers, and he determined to push his way 
farther south in quest of India. First he discovered a 
group of islands, to which he gave the name of Santa 
Maria de la Concepcion ; then he discovered Cuba, 
and coasted along its north-eastern shores ; and next 
he came to Hispaniola, which the natives called 
Hayti, and here he was cordially received by King 
Guacanagari. Hispaniola formed a central point of 
discovery, not only for the West Indies, bat for the 
whole of the New World. 

On one occasion, while the admiral was taking a 
sound and much-needed sleep on board his own vessel, 
the ship was allowed to drift until it grounded on a 
shoal. Some of the cowardly crew left by the boat, 
and Columbus did what he could in the emergency, 
until assistance arrived from the king, who was moved 
to tears by the misfortune. Every one was rescued, 
and the natives behaved most honourably in taking 
nothing. The admiral was much moved by the kind- 
ness of the Indians, and said, " They are a loving, 
uncovetous people, so docile in all things, that I assure 
your Highnesses I believe in all the world there is 
not a better people, or a better country ; they love 
their neighbours as themselves, and they have the 
sweetest and gentlest way of talking in the world, and 
always with a smile." 

Columbus determined on founding a colony in this 
land, " having found such goodwill and such signs of 
gold." The Santa Maria, being entirely disabled, 
was broken up, and with her timbers the admiral built 
a fort, calling it La Navidad, because he entered the 
port close by on Christmas Day. But he could not 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 55 

remain behind himself ; he was naturally anxious to 
return to Spain, and to be the herald of his own 
wonderful discoveries. He left a body of his followers, 
to the number of forty, to guard the fort, and 
he charged them to do no violence, but to act as 
Christians. 

On the 4th of January, 1493, he set sail for home 
in the JS'iiia ; but he had not gone far before he was 
joined by the Pinta, and the two vessels put into the 
Bay of Monte Christo together. Pinzon explained that 
he had been parted from Columbus by the bad weather, 
which had driven the Pi7ita out of sight of its leader ; 
and the admiral, not desiring a quarrel, accepted the 
explanation. He was, liowever, convinced in his own 
mind of Pinzon's bad faith. The wily Pinzon had 
heard of an island where all the gold was, and he 
wanted to secure the profits of this El Dorado on his 
own account. He failed in his scheme, though he did 
secure a considerable quantity of gold through barter. 

When they had refitted, the vessels set out again, 
coasting to the eastward of St. Domingo as far as 
the Gulf of Samana. Here there was a brush with 
the natives, which Columbus peacefully composed, 
compelling Pinzon at the same time to set free six 
natives whom he had seized for the purpose of selling 
into slavery. On the 16th of January the vessels 
resumed their course, Columbus hoping to find the 
island which Marco Polo had described as being 
peopled by Amazons. But this hope was abandoned, 
for the crews were homesick, and in deference to the 
universal wish the admiral was obliged to make for 
Europe. The passage was very rough, and the vessels 



56 THE UNITED STATES. 

"were in danger, owing to want of ballast ; bnt the com-, 
mander, by a happy thought, ordered all the empty 
casks on board to be filled with water. As the 
weather remained tempestuous, he first invoked the aid 
of Heaven, and then lots were drawn as to who should 
perform a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of 
Guadaloupe if they reached land in safety. Twice the 
lot fell upon the admiral, and he and all the crew 
made a vow to go in a penitential procession to 
the first church dedicated to the Virgin which they 
should meet with after reaching land. So violent 
were the gales that Columbus wrote a brief account 
of his voyage on parchment, which he enclosed in 
wax, and i)laced in a cask that was committed to the 
waves. Happily he survived to tell his own story. 

On the 18th of February the vessels cast anchor 
off the Island of St. Mary, one of the Azores, belong- 
ing to the Portuguese. In fulfilment of their vow, 
the crew went barefooted and in their shirts on a 
pilgrimage to the Chapel of St. Mary. The governor, 
thinking such a seizure would gratify the Portuguese 
monarch, captured the whole band. Great difficulties 
ensued, but in the end the governor gave up his 
prisoners, and on the 24th the Nina again steered for 
Spain. Boisterous weather once more ensued, and 
the violence of the gale was such that Columbus said, 
" I escaped by the greatest miracle in the world." 
However, on the 4th of March he succeeded in anchor- 
ing in the Tagus ; and having received an invitation to 
visit the Portuguese Court, he was received by the 
King with the highest honours. The latter put in a 
claim to the newly found countries, on the strength 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 57 

of the old Papal Bull, but Columbns repudiated it. 
A few days later the admiral left the Tagus for the 
Bar of Saltes, and reached his original starting-point 
at Palos on the 15th of March. 

Great was the enthusiasm manifested by the in- 
habitants of Palos, who regarded even the humblest 
of the adventurers as a hero. Columbus sent a letter 
to Ferdinand and Isabella, who were then at Barcelona, 
announcing the success of his mission, and stating 
that he should soon present himself in person to their 
Highnesses. But Pinzon, the commander of the 
Pinta — which had been separated from the Nina — 
had already despatched a letter from Bayonne to the 
sovereigns, announcing his discoveries, and ignoring 
Columbus, whom he probably believed to have been 
lost at sea. The monarchs, however, sent a reply, 
commanding him not to appear at Court without the 
admiral, and this so preyed on his mind that he took 
to his bed and died of a broken heart. 

The details furnished by the historian Herrera 
show what a magnificent reception was accorded to 
Columbus, who now " entered into the greatest reputa- 
tion." Nothing could be talked of or thought about 
save the admiral's wonderful success. One of his 
biographers thus describes the memorable scene of 
his appearance before the Spanish monarchs : 

" The Court prepared a solemn reception for the 
admiral at Barcelona, where the people poured out in 
such numbers to see him that the streets could not 
contain them. A triumphal procession like his tlie 
world had not yet seen ; it was a thing to make the 
most incurious alert, and even the sad and solitary 



68 THE UNITED STATES. 

student content to come out and mingle with the mob. 
The captives that accompanied a Roman general's car 
might be strange barbarians of a tribe from which 
Rome had not before had slaves. But barbarians 
were not unknown creatures. H^re, with Columbus, 
were beings of a new world. Here was the conqueror, 
not of man, but of nature, not of flesh and blood, but 
of the fearful unknown, of the elements, and, more 
than all, of the prejudices of centuries. We may 
imagine the rumours that must have gone before 
his coming. And now he was there. Ferdinand and 
Isabella had their thrones placed in the presence 
of the assembled Court. Columbus approached the 
monarchs, and then, ' his countenance beaming with 
modest satisfaction,' knelt at the King's feet, and 
begged leave to kiss their Highnesses' hands. 

" They gave their hands ; then they bade him rise 
and be seated before them. He recounted briefly the 
events of his voyage — a story more interesting than 
the tale told in the Court of Dido by Jllneas, like 
whom he had almost perished close to home — and he 
concluded his unpretending narrative by showing what 
new things and creatures he had brought with him. 

" Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, giving 
thanks to God with many tears, and then the choristers 
of the Royal Chapel closed the grand ceremonial 
by singing the Te Deum, Afterwards men walked 
home grave and yet happy, having seen the symbol 
of a great work, something to be thought over for 
many a generation. 

" Other marks of approbation for Columbus were 
not wanting. The agreement between him and the 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 59 

sovereigns was confirmed. An appropriate coat of 
arms, then a thing of much significance, was granted 
to him in augmentation of his own. In the shield 
were conspicuously emblazoned the Royal Arms of 
Castile and Leon. Nothing can better serve to show 
the immense favour which Columbus had obtained 
at Court by his discovery than such a grant ; and it 
is but a trifling addition to make, in recounting his 
new. honours, that the title of Don was given to him 
and his descendants, and also to his brothers. He 
rode by the King's side ; was served at table as a 
grandee ; ' All hail ! ' was said to him on state 
occasions ; and the men of his age, happy in the fact, 
had found out another great man to honour. 

" The more prosaic part of the business had then to 
be attended to. The sovereigns applied to the Pope, 
Alexander VI., to confer on the Crowns of Castile 
and Leon the lands discovered and to be discovered 
in the Indies. To this application they soon received 
a favourable answer. The Pope granted to the Princes 
of Castile and Leon, and to their successors, the 
sovereign empire and principality of the Indies, and 
of the navigation there, with high and royal jurisdiction 
and imperial dignity and lordship over all that hemi- 
sphere. To preserve the peace between Spain and 
Portugal, the Pontiff divided the Spanish and Portu- 
guese Indian sovereignties by an imaginary line drawn 
from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the 
Azores and the Cape de Verde Islands." 

The nine Indians brought by Columbus were baptized 
at Barcelona ; and as one of them died immediately 
afterwards, he was spoken .-^f as the first of the Indian 



60 THE UNITED STATES. 

nation to enter heaven. A special department for the 
control of colonial affairs was constituted, with an 
eminent ecclesiastic, Juan de Fonseca, as director ; but 
Fonseca was ill-fitted to take charge of a Christian 
office of this kind. He was hard, worldly, and un- 
scrupulous, and inflicted great miseries upon the 
Indian race, instead of reconciling them to the 
sovereignty of their new masters. 

Ferdinand and Isabella, moved partially by jealousy 
of Portugal, now hastened forward the preparations for 
Columbus's second voyage. On the 29th of May, 1493, 
he received his instructions, which ordered him to 
labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in 
the Indies to a knowledge of the Holy Catholic Faith. 
Gentleness and forbearance were to be exercised ; and 
if any person or persons were found treating the 
natives harshly, they were to be severely chastised. 

The new expedition was a very imposing one, for it 
consisted of seventeen ships and seventeen hundred men. 
With this armada under his command, Columbus 
sailed from Cadiz on the 25th of September, 1493. The 
ships had a fair and prosperous voyage, and sighted 
land on the 3rd of November, having accomplished 
the passage " by the goodness of God, and the wise 
management of the admiral, in as straight a track as 
if they had sailed by a well-known and frequented 
route." As it was Sunday, the name of Dominica was 
given to this first island touched at. A second island 
to the northward was named Maria Galante, after the 
admiral's flag-ship ; while a third and much larger one 
was called Guadaloupe, after a monastery in Estrema- 
dura. This island was thickly wooded, and peopled 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 61 

by cannibals. Sailing then to the north-westward, 
Columbus passed and named in succession Montserrat, 
Antigua, St. Martin, and Santa Cruz. Arriving later 
at a lovely and fruitful island, he called it St. John, 
but it afterwards became known as Porto Rico. On 
reaching La Navidad, he was profoundly moved on 
discovering that the colony which he had planted 
had entirely disappeared. King Guacanagari told 
him that the Spaniards had fallen into evil courses, 
and quarrelled amongst themselves, so that they fell 
an easy prey to a neighbouring Indian chief named 
Caonabo, who had destroyed the fort and slain the 
garrison. Guacanagari was willing for another settle- 
ment to be effected, but Columbus decided upon finding 
another site, as the Indians, who had at first hailed 
the white men as angels from heaven, came to look 
upon them as debased profligates and disturbers of 
the peace. 

It was on the coast of Hayti, and about forty miles 
to the east of Cape Haytieu, that Columbus planted 
his new settlement, which he called Isabella, after 
his royal mistress. Unfortunately it was now that 
his troubles and anxieties began, and it was written 
by the finger of fate that they were only to end with 
his life. Disease and fatigue began to tell upon the 
colonists ; provisions and medicines began to fail ; 
while there was no prospect of that golden harvest 
which they were promised on leaving Spain. The 
admiral himself was made ill by his anxieties. He 
sent home an account of the state of the colony in 
January, 1494, It was placed in charge of Antonio 
de Torres, the Receiver of the Colony, who was to 



62 THE UNITED STATES. 

lay it before the Court of Spain and explain its details. 
Many of the suggestions which Columbus made were 
excellent, and these were at once approved by Ferdinand 
and Isabella. But when he went on to recommend 
the initiation of a slave traffic, to the eternal honour 
of the sovereigns they declined to accede to it. 
Columbus desired no doubt to improve the health 
and morals of the natives by capturing them and send- 
ing them abroad. " The Catholic sovereigns would 
have been very glad to have received some money 
from the Indies : money was always welcome to King 
Ferdinand. The purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle 
for the colonists had hitherto proved anything but 
a profitable outlay ; the prospect of conversion was 
probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, 
certainly to one of them ; but still this proposition 
for the establishment of slavery was wisely and 
magnanimously set aside," 

Meantime the new colony soon fell into a deplorable 
condition. What with illness, hard work, and poor 
living, complaints developed into open mutiny, and 
Columbus was in sore straits. A rising under Bernal 
Diaz, a man in high authority, was summarily quelled, 
and Diaz was sent prisoner to Spain, there to undergo 
his trial. The admiral now founded a mining settle- 
ment in the district of Cibao, which he named the 
Fort of St. Thomas ; but the mines were inefficiently 
worked, and proved disappointing. Knowing that the 
Spanish monarchs were eager for further discoveries, 
Columbus determined to go still farther afield. He 
therefore appointed a Council of Government, with 
his brother Don Diego as President, and Don Pedro 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 63 

Margarite as Captain-General ; and having done this, 
he sailed from Hispaniola on the 24th of April, 1494. 

During this new voyage Col ambus made the im- 
portant discovery of Jamaica, and a number of other 
islands. Navigation was so dangerous that he is 
reported never to have slept for a whole month. 
Then, after leaving an island named La Mona, he 
fell into what his biographers call a pestilential 
drowsiness, which completely dej^rived him of his 
senses for a time. It was no doubt jjartly the result 
of anxiety, privation, and sickness. As the admiral's 
chief object in making for the Island of San Juan 
was to capture cannibals. Las Casas regards this 
lethargical attack as a judgment upon him for his 
arbitrary efforts in introducing Christianity. Ill and 
helpless, the admiral returned to Isabella on the 29th 
of September, and here he remained for five months, 
unable to move. He appears to have found consola- 
tion in the presence of his brother Bartholomew. His 
family affections generally indeed were very strong; 
and in a letter to his son Diego, exhorting him to 
make much of his half-brother Ferdinand, he re- 
marked, " Ten brothers would not be too many for 
you. I have never found better friends, on my right 
hand and on my left, than my brothers." 

Things looked a little brighter at Isabella when 
Antonio de Torres returned from Spain with pro- 
visions and other necessaries for the colony, as well 
as with despatches for Columbus. But this agreeable 
change did not last long, for the internal affairs of 
the colony were disorganized, and the Indians were 
at war with the Spaniards. Don Pedro Margarite, 



64 THE UNITED STATES. 

wlio had been appointed captain-general in the 
admiral's absence, bad devastated the country in 
filibustering expeditions. He bad been commissioned 
to explore the islands with four hundred men, but told 
to treat the Indians kindly and yet justly, and to 
capture Caonabo the chief, and his brothers, either by 
force or artifice. Margarite interpreted his instruc- 
tions in the worst sense ; and rapine and injustice 
marked his footsteps, until the Indians passed from 
terror to despair, and became strongly hostile to- 
wards the colonists. Having done all this mischief, 
Margarite had now returned to Spain, with Father 
Buil and other prominent men, in the same vessel 
which took back Bartholomew Columbus. 

But difficulties only kindled the energies of Chris- 
topher Columbus. Learning that a hostile chief named 
Guatiguana was besieging the Fort of Magdalena, 
within only two days' march of Isabella, Columbus at 
once went out, and defeated him. The whole of the 
province was reduced to order, and the admiral took 
a large number of the inhabitants as slaves. These were 
despatched to Spain in four vessels, which sailed from 
Isabella in February, 1495. At a later period, on the 
broad plains of the Vega Real, Columbus defeated 
with great slaughter an immense body of Indians, 
whose numbers are placed by some historians at one 
hundred thousand. There was a fearful carnage, and 
many of those who escaped death were condemned to 
slavery. Caonabo, the formidable hostile chief, was 
amongst those who escaped, and stratagem was now 
resorted to in order to entrap him. He fell into the 
snare, and was conveyed manacled to Columbus, 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 65 

who sent liim to Spain for trial, but tie died on the 
voyage. 

These events were of great significance; for, as Sir 
Arthur Helps has observed, they must be loolced upon 
as the origin of West Indian slavery. " We have 
seen," he says, " that the admiral, after his first 
victory, sent ofi" four ships with slaves to Spain. He 
now took occasion to impose a tribute upon the whole 
population of Hispaniola. 

" It was thus arranged. Every Indian above fourteen 
years old, who was in the provinces of the mines, or 
near to these provinces, was to pay every three months 
a little bellful of gold ; all other persons in the island 
were to pay at the same time an arroba of cotton 
for each person. Certain brass or copper tokens were 
made — different ones for each tribute time — and were 
given to the Indians when they paid tribute ; and 
these tokens, being worn about their necks, were to 
show who had paid tribute. A remarkable proposal 
was made upon this occasion to the admiral by Guario- 
neux, cacique of the Vega Real — namely, that he 
would institute a huge farm for the growth of corn 
and the manufacture of bread, stretching from Isabella 
to St. Domingo (i.e. from sea to sea), which would 
suffice to maintain all Castile with bread. The cacique 
would do this on condition that his vassals were not 
to pay tribute in gold, as they did not know how to 
collect that. But this proposal was not accepted, 
because Columbus wished to have tribute in such 
things as he could send over to Spain. 

"This tribute is considered to have been a most 
unreasonable one in point of amount, and Columbus 

5 



66 THE UNITED STATES. 

was obliged to modify his demands upon these poor 
Indians, and in some instances to change the nature 
of them. It appears that, in 1496, service instead of 
tribute was demanded of certain Indian villages ; and 
as the villages were ordered to make (and work) the 
farms in the Spanish settlements, this may be con- 
sidered as the beginning of the system oi repartimientos, 
or encomieodas, as they were afterwards called. 

" We must not, however, suppose that Indian slavery 
would not have taken place by means of Columbus, 
even if these uprisings and defeats of the Indians in 
the course of the year 1495 had never occurred. Very 
early indeed we see what the admiral's views were 
with regard to the Indians. In the diary which he 
kept of his first voyage, on the 14th of October, three 
days after discovering the New World, he describes 
a position which he thinks would be a very good one 
for a fort ; and he goes on to say, ' I do not think 
that it (the fort) will be necessary, for this people is 
very simple in the use of arms (as your Highnesses 
will see from seven of them that I have taken in 
order to bring them to you, to learn our language and 
afterwards to take them back) ; so that when your 
Highnesses command, you can have them all taken to 
Castile, or kept in the island as captives.' 

"Columbus was not an avaricious nor a cruel man; 
and certainly he was a very pious one ; but early in 
life he had made voyages along the coast of Africa, 
and he was accustomed to a slave trade. Moreover, 
he was anxious to reduce the expenses of these 
Indian possessions to the Catholic sovereigns, to prove 
himself in the right as to all he had said respecting 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 67 

the advantages that would flow to Spain from the 
Indies, and to confute his enemies at Court." 

When the slaves reached Spain, Ferdinand and 
Isabella were anxious to have it decided whether 
they were prisoners of war, for they were opposed 
to slavery, as we have seen. They consequently 
referred the matter to Bishop Fonseca, who had 
charge of Indian affairs, instructing him to withhold 
receiving the money for the sale of these Indians, until 
their Highnesses should be able to inform them- 
selves from men learned in the law, theologians and 
canonists, whether with a good conscience the Indians 
could be sold or not. It seems doubtful whether 
the point was ever decided. The Indians who re- 
mained in Hispaniola, and who were supposed to 
be free, had a worse fate even than those who were 
deported. They thought by refusing to till the soil 
that they should starve the Spaniards out; but 
this policy only reacted upon themselves, and they 
perished of hunger, sickness, and misery in great 
numbers. 

Meanwhile, the Conrt of Spain was being moved 
against Columbus by the representations of Margarite, 
Father Buil, and others. The result was that a 
royal commissioner was sent out to Hispaniola in 
the person of Juan Aguado, a Gentleman of the 
Chamber, who arrived at Isabella in October, 1495. 
His action in the colony, coupled with the fear of 
a hostile report, quickened the admiral in his desire 
to return to Spain to defend himself. Aguado had 
obtained a good deal of evidence from the Spaniards 
touching the despotic rule of Columbus, his harsh 



68 THE UNITED STATES. 

treatment of the hidalgoes, his expensive mania for 
discovering new lands, and other matters; and the 
Indians, hoping to reap benefit from a change, like- 
wise turned against him. Accordingly, he left Isabella 
on the 10th of March, 1496, in the Nina, Aguado 
himself returning in another caravel. A number 
of the colonists returned with them. The voyage 
was a wretched one, and the greatest privations 
were endured before the vessels safely entered the 
Bay of Cadiz, on the 11th of June. A month later 
the admiral obeyed a summons from the Court to 
proceed to Burgos. His journey was not so much 
of a triumphal procession as his first one, although 
he displayed gold and natives as before. But the 
sovereigns received him kindly, and listened sym- 
pathetically to the story of his troubles, and his 
defence from the charges levelled against him by his 
enemies. His defence was practically accepted by the 
sovereigns. 

Columbus now remained in Spain for two years, 
and the course of events during that period must 
be briefly traced. Don Bartholomew Columbus, who 
was still conducting affairs in Hispaniola, sent home 
in 1496 three hundred slaves, who were supposed 
to be rebels. In 1497 the sovereigns, on the advice 
of Columbus, issued two objectionable edicts — one 
authorizing the judges to transport criminals to the 
Indies, and the other giving an indulgence to all 
those who had committed any crimes (with the excep- 
tion of heresy, treason, and a few others) to go 
out at their own expense to Hispaniola, there to 
serve for a time under the orders of the admiral. 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 69 

Columbns had reason to repent giving tliis advice, 
for only three years afterwards we find him writing, 
" I swear that numbers of men have gone to the 
Indies who did not deserve water, from God or 
man." Yet Las Casas, speaking of these same 
colonists, said, " I have known some of them in these 
islands, even of those who had lost their ears, whom 
I always found sufficiently honest men," 

Letters patent were next issued by the sovereigns, 
authorizing the admiral to grant repartimietitos of the 
lands in the Indies to the Spaniards. No mention 
was made of the Indians themselves at this time : 
the Spaniard who received a grant of land was "to 
have, and to hold, and to possess," etc., and he was 
empowered " to sell, and to give, and to present, and 
to traffic with, and to exchange, and to pledge, and 
to alienate, and to do with it and in it all that he 
likes or may think good." This oppressive legislation 
was supplemented by the equally oppressive deeds 
of Don Bartholomew, the adelantado^ or deputy, of 
Hispaniola, He traversed many of the islands, sub- 
duing the chiefs and people either by force or 
stratagem, and compelling them to pay tribute. His 
activity was such that the Spaniards began to com- 
plain of the labours imposed upon them, while the 
Indians constantly rose against their masters. An 
insurrection broke out among the Spaniards, headed 
by Eoldan, Chief Justice of Hispaniola, who was 
anxious to return to Spain as Margarite had done. 
He and his adherents left Isabella in a body, and it 
was with great difficulty that Don Bartholomew could 
keep a sufficient number of men faithfal to him. 



70 THE UNITED STATES. 

Guarionex, one of the disaffected Indian chiefs or 
caciques, fled to the territories of Maiobanex, the chief 
of a hardy hill tribe near Cabron. Don Bartholomew 
pnrsned the fugitive, and demanded his surrender, but 
Maiobanex refused to give him up. Even when his 
own people counselled the surrender, the chief made 
the noble reply that " Guarionex was a good man, 
and deserved well at his hands, for he had given him 
many royal gifts when he came to him. . . . Where- 
fore he would be party to no treaty to desert Guarionex, 
since he had fled to him, and he had pledged himself 
to take care of the fugitive, and would rather suffer 
all extremities than give detractors a cause for speak- 
ing ill, to say that he had delivered up his guest." 
Loyally and manfully he stood by his brother chief 
to the last, for both were ultimately captured and 
thrown into prison. 

We now come to the third memorable voyage of 
Columbus. His instructions on this occasion were to 
bring the Indians into peace and quietude, their sub- 
jection being accomplished amicably or" benignantly." 
They were also to be converted to the Holy Catholic 
Faith, and have the sacraments administered to them. 
The expedition set sail from the port of San Lucar on 
the 30th of May, 1498. It consisted of six vessels 
and two hundred men, in addition to the sailors who 
were necessary to navigate the ships. On reaching 
the Canary Isles, Columbus sent three of his ships 
direct to Hispaniola, telling their commanders that 
he was going to the Cape Verde Islands, and thence 
" in the name of the Sacred Trinity " to the south, until 
he should arrive under the equinoctial line, in the 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 71 

hope of being " guided by God to discover sometbing 
wbicb may be to His service, and to that of our 
Lords, the King and Queen, and to the honour of 
Christendom ; for I believe," he added, " that no one 
has ever traversed this way, and that this sea is 
nearly unknown." 

This declaration shows that Columbus had a clear 
and definite object in view in going south, and that 
he expected to come upon a greater land than any he 
had hitherto encountered. On the 27th of June he 
reached the Cape Verde Islands. Leaving them on the 
4th of July, after experiencing dense fogs, he steered 
for the south-west. He sailed for upwards of one 
hundred and twenty leagues, and then experienced 
eight days of such intolerable heat that if the 
remaining seven had been clear and cloudless like 
the first not a man would have been left alive. Not 
until Thursday, the 31st of July, was land observed. 
On that day Alonzo Perez, a mariner of Huelva, and 
a follower of the admiral, chanced to go aloft upon 
the maintop-sail of the admiral's ship, and suddenly 
saw land towards the south-west, about fifteen leagues 
away. Columbus named the land Trinidad, and the 
sailors sang the Salve Regiua and other pious hymns 
in honour of God and in thankfulness for the new 
discovery. From the shores of the island, Columbus 
saw the South American Continent for the first time ; 
but imagining it to be only a large island, he gave 
it the name of Zeta. He next came to the Gulf 
of Paria, and wherever he went he found the coasts 
fruitful and well cultivated. In coasting up the gulf, 
the admiral invariably met with friendly treatment 



i2 THE UNITED STATES. 

from the natives. From the immense amount of 
fresh water which was brought down by the rivers 
into the Gulf of Paria, he came to the conclusion that 
a tract of land which he had named Gracia was not 
an island, but a continent, and this supposition was 
correct. He thought he had reached the gates of 
the earthly Paradise, and that this was the beginning 
of that golden continent of the East which had for 
years been a settled conviction with him. 

One of his biographers writes : " Columbus did not 
forget to claim, with all due formalities, the posses- 
sion of this approach to Paradise for his employers, 
the Catholic sovereigns. Accordingly, when at Paria, 
he had landed and taken possession of the coast in 
their names, erecting a great cross upon the shore, 
which, he tells Ferdinand and Isabella, he was in the 
habit of doing at every headland, the religious aspect 
of the conquest being one which always had great 
influence with the admiral, as he believed it to have 
with the Catholic monarchs. In communicating 
this discovery, he reminds them how they bade him 
go on with the enterprise, if he should discover only 
stones and rocks, and had told him that they 
counted the cost for nothing, considering that 
the Faith would be increased, and their dominions 
widened. 

" It was, however, no poor discovery of mere ' rocks 
and stones ' which the admiral had now made. It 
will be interesting to see his first impressions of the 
men and the scenery of this continent which he had 
now, unconsciously, for the first time, discovered. He 
says, ' I found some lands, the most beautiful in the 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 73 

world, and very populous.' The lands in the Island 
of Trinidad he had previously compared to Valencia, 
in Spain, during the month of March. It is also 
noticeable that he had observed that the fields were 
cultivated. Of the people he says, ' They are all 
of good stature, well made, and of very graceful 
bearing, with much and smooth hair ' ; and he 
mentions that on their heads they wore the beautiful 
Arab head-dress (called keffeK), made of worked and 
coloured handkerchiefs, which appeared in the distance 
as if they were silken." 

Columbus said nothing to the Spanish monarchs 
of his discovery of pearls. It is conjectured that he 
wished to keep this secret for awhile, lest the fruits 
of his enterprise should be snatched from him ; but 
of course the knowledge could not long be suppressed, 
and the Pearl Coast soon became a favourite field for 
adventurers. 

The admiral himself had not the time to push 
to the utmost the advantages to be derived from his 
discoveries, for he was anxious to return to Hispaniola. 
He arrived there on the 30th of August, and found the 
colony in a deplorable condition. He sent off five ships 
from St. Domingo laden with six hundred slaves. 
In his letters to the Spanish Court, he spoke of the 
intended adoption, on behalf of private individuals, 
of a system of exchange of slaves for goods wanted 
from the mother country. This plan, which was a 
new kind of repartimiento^ he proceeded to carry into 
effect without waiting for the necessary authority. 
After a long series of negotiations with Roldan, he 
confirmed him in his chief-justiceship, and rewarded 



74 THE UNITED STATES. 

liis friends with lands and slaves, making the Indians 
till the lands for the new possessors. Those adherents 
of Roldan who preferred to return to Spain he per- 
mitted to do so, giving each of them a certain number 
of slaves. 

Queen Isabella was very angry when she learnt 
that Columbus had thus been giving her new vassals 
away. She therefore ordered proclamations to be 
made at Seville, Granada, and elsewhere, command- 
ing all persons who were in possession of Indians, 
given to them by the admiral, to send back those 
Indians to Hispaniola, under pain of death — "and 
that particularly they should send back those Indians, 
and not the others who had been brought before, 
because she was informed that the others had been 
taken in just war." The Spanish sovereigns appear 
to have eased their consciences by accepting the dictum 
that Indians taken in open warfare could be justifiably 
made slaves of ; yet there was practically no differ- 
ence between these slaves and those ordered to be 
returned. 

Fate now began to press heavily against Columbus. 
His enemies increased in numbers and bitterness, and 
Don Ferdinand thus graphically describes the attitude 
of his father's foes : " When I was at Granada, at 
the time the most serene Prince Don Miguel died, 
more than fifty of them (Spaniards who had returned 
from the Indies), as men without shame, bought a 
great quantity of grapes, and sat themselves down in 
the court of the Alhambra, uttering loud cries, saying 
that their Highnesses and the admiral made them 
live in this poor fashion on account of the bad pay 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 75 

they received, with many other dishonest and un- 
seemly things, which they kept repeating. Such was 
their effrontery, that when the Catholic King came 
forth they all surrounded him, and got him into the 
midst of them, saying, ' Pay ! pay ! ' and if by chance 
I and my brother, who were pages to the most serene 
Queen, happened to pass where they were, they 
shouted to the very heavens, saying, ' Look at the sons 
of the admiral of Mosquitoland, of that man who 
has discovered the lands of deceit and disaj)pointment, 
a place of sepulchre and wretchedness to Spanish 
hidalgoes ' : adding many other insulting expressions, 
on which account we excused ourselves from passing 
by them." 

Ferdinand and Isabella now began to consider the 
question of the suspension of Columbus. But before 
doing this they resolved to send out to Hispaniola an 
official with full civil and judicial authority. Accord- 
ingly, on the 21st of March, 1499, they authorized 
Francis de Bobadilla " to ascertain what persons have 
raised themselves against justice in the Island of 
Hispaniola, and to proceed against them according to 
law." Two months later they conferred upon him the 
government, and signed an order that all arms and 
fortresses in the Indies should be given up to him. 
Then, on the 26th of May, they entrusted him with 
this letter to Columbus : 

" Don Cheistophek Columbus, our Admiral of the 
Ocean : We have commanded the Comendador Francis 
de Bobadilla, the bearer of this, that he speak to you 
on our part some things which he will tell yon : we 



/b THE UNITED STATES. 

pray you give him faith and credence, and act accord- 
ingly. 

" I THE King, I the Queen. 
" By their command, 

" Miguel Pekez de Almazan." 

Bobadilla did not arrive in Hispaniola until the 
23rd of August, 1500 ; but he at once began to act 
in an arbitrary spirit, and one which could not have 
commended itself to the sovereigns. He took posses- 
sion of the admiral's house at St. Domingo, and 
summoned the admiral, who was then at La Concep- 
cion, to appear before him. The accusers of Columbus 
gained courage at Bobadilla's coming, and charges 
multii)lied in a manner that was equally rapid and 
contemptible. Bobadilla put Columbus and his 
brothers in chains, and sent them to Spain. When 
the captain of the ship offered to free Columbus from 
his fetters, he proudly replied, " No, I will wear 
them as a memento of the gratitude of princes." He 
declared that he would never have them taken off, 
except by royal command, and he ordered them to be 
buried with him. There was great indignation through- 
out Spain at the outrage ; and when the sovereigns 
heard of it, they disclaimed the proceeding, and ordered 
him to be immediately liberated. He was directed 
to proceed to the Court at Granada, and money was 
forwarded to enable him to make the journey in a 
style befitting his rank. On his arrival, he was 
received with every mark of distinction : their High- 
nesses dismissed the charges against him as unworthy 
of investigation, and promised him redress and com- 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 77 

pensation. Yet Ferdinand was jealous of his power 
over the colonies, and the wealth that might possibly 
accrue to him, and he was resolved not to reinstate 
him in his viceroyalty. 

The Queen granted Columbus a private audience, 
and received him very graciously. The admiral told 
the story of his difficulties and grievances with much 
eloquence, and showed that he was obliged to strike 
out a path for himself under the untoward circum- 
stances which presented themselves. Isabella made 
full allowance for this, and expressed her appreciation 
of his services ; but then she went on to say : " Com- 
mon report accuses you of acting with a degree of 
severity quite unsuitable for an infant colony, and 
likely to excite rebellion there. But the matter as to 
which I find it hardest to give you my pardon is your 
conduct in reducing to slavery a number of Indians 
who had done nothing to deserve such a fate. This 
was contrary to my express orders. As your ill fortune 
willed it, just at the time when I heard of this breach 
of my instructions everybody was complaining of you, 
and no one spoke a word in your favour. And I felt 
obliged to send to the Indies a commissioner to in- 
vestigate matters, and give me a true report ; and, 
if necessary, to put limits to the authority which 
you were accused of overstepping. If you were 
found guilty of the charges, he was to relieve you of 
the government and to send you to Spain to give an 
account of your stewardship. This was the extent of 
his commission. I find that I have made a bad choice 
in my agent ; and I will take care to make an ex- 
ample of Bobadilla, which shall serve as a warning 



78 THE UNITED STATES. 

to others not to exceed their powers. I cannot, 
however, promise to reinstate you at once in your 
government. People are too much inflamed against 
you, and must have time to cool. As to your rank of 
admiral, I never intended to deprive you of it. But 
you must bide your time and trust in me." 

Bobadilla was superseded, and a new governor 
named Ovando appointed, who was to hold his post 
at their Highnesses' will and pleasure. His instruc- 
tions stated that " all the Indians in Hispaniola should 
be free from servitude and be unmolested by any one, 
and that they should live as free vassals, governed 
and protected by justice, as were the vassals of Castile." 
They were to pay tribute, but they were to receive 
daily wages for their assistance in getting gold. No 
Jews, Moors, or new converts were permitted to go 
out to the colonies ; but " negro slaves born in the 
power of Christians were to be allowed to pass to the 
Indies, and the officers of the royal revenue were to 
receive the money to be paid for their permits." These 
instructions, issued in 1501, thus give the first in- 
timation with regard to negroes going to the Indies. 
Ovando proved to be a cruel and tyrannical deputy, 
who thought nothing of devastating provinces and 
massacring the inhabitants. 

Having been to a considerable extent restored to 
favour, Columbus conceived a scheme for a passage 
from the neighbourhood of St. Domingo to those 
regions in Asia from which the Portuguese were now 
beginning to reap profit, and which he believed must 
be near the El Dorado of his dreams. He appealed 
to the sovereigns to allow him to go forth once more, 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 79 

and Ferdinand granted his request, at the same time 
reiterating his confidence in him. So on the 9th of 
May, 1502, Columbus set sail from Cadiz with his 
brother Bartholomew and his second son Fernando. 
There were four caravels, and it was the admiral's 
intention to explore the Gulf of Mexico. Martinique 
was reached on the 13th of June. The largest vessel 
was in a dangerous state, and he desired to run into 
St. Domingo to refit; but as he had been forbidden 
in his instructions to visit St. Domingo, Ovando would 
not permit him to land. He therefore went forward, 
passing Jamaica on the 14th of July, and afterwards 
coasting Honduras. To one place, touched at on the 
12th of September, he gave the name of Cape Gracias 
a Dios. Some weeks later he explored several bays 
on the Isthmus of Panama, but he could learn nothing 
of the kingdom of the Khan or of the strait which 
he believed led to it. 

In December the little expedition encountered 
terrible storms ; but after eight days' tossing about, a 
small harbour was made at the mouth of a river, 
which the admiral named Bethlehem, because he 
entered it on the day of the Epiphany. Here he 
found much gold, and formed a little settlement for 
collecting it. But the natives were very hostile, and 
threatened the extinction of the settlers, so Columbus 
was obliged to take them all on board again. Pie had 
now lost one of his worm-eaten vessels, and the others 
were in a crazy condition. With great difficulty he 
managed to steer for Jamaica, however, and in the 
harbour of Santa Gloria his voyage came to a con- 
clusion. As his vessels could float no longer they 



80 THE UNITED STATES. 

were run ashore, and he constructed huts on the decks 
for his men, forbidding them to go on shore, so as to 
avoid all quarrel with the natives. 

But Columbus could not rest here, and he sent a 
letter to Ovando — which was taken by Diego Mendez 
in a canoe — asking him to forward a relief vessel to 
take off the crews. He also forwarded a despatch to 
the sovereigns, giving a detailed account of his voyage 
and a glowing description of the riches of Veragua. 
This despatch was a strange commingling of faith 
and enthusiasm. The passage in which he described 
his emotions during the storm at the mouth of the 
River Bethlehem was most extraordinary, and ran as 
follows : " Wearied and sighing, I fell into a slumber, 
when I heard a piteous voice saying to me, ' fool 
and slow to believe and serve thy God, who is the 
God of all ! What did He more for Moses, or for His 
servant David, than He has done for thee ? From 
the time of thy birth He has ever had thee under His 
peculiar care. When He saw thee of a fitting age, 
He made thy name to resound marvellously throughout 
the earth, and thou wert obeyed in many lauds, and 
didst acquire honourable fame among Christians. Of 
the gates of the ocean sea, shut up with such mighty 
chains, He delivered to thee the keys ; the Indies, 
those wealthy regions of the world, He gave thee for 
thine own, and empowered thee to dispose of them 
to others, according to thy pleasure. What did He 
more for the great people of Israel, when He led 
them forth from Egypt ? Or for David, whom, from 
being a shepherd, He made a king in Judaea ? Turn 
to Him, then, and acknowledge thine error : His 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 81 

mercy is infinite. He has many and vast inheritances 
yet in reserve. Fear not to seek them. Thine age 
shall be no impediment to any great undertaking. 
Abraham was above a hundred years when he begat 
Isaac : and was Sarah youthful ? Thou urgest de- 
spondingly for succour. Answer ! Who hath afilicted 
thee so much and so many times — God, or the world ? 
The privileges and promises which God hath made 
to thee He hath never broken, neither hath He said, 
after having received thy services, that His meaning 
was different, and to be understood in a different 
sense. He fulfils all that He promises, aud with 
increase. Such is His custom. I have shown thee 
what thy Creator hath done for thee, and what He 
doeth for all. The present is the reward of the toils 
and perils thou hast endured in serving others.' I 
heard this," adds Columbus, " as one almost dead, 
and had no power to reply to words so true, excepting 
to weep for my errors. Whoever it was that spoke to 
me finished by saying, ' Fear not ! All these tribula- 
tions are written in marble, and not without cause.' " 

No doubt this exordium was intended to rouse the 
sympathies of the sovereigns. Twice did Mendez 
make efforts to reach Hispaniola and invoke the 
succour of Ovando, and at length the latter authorized 
him to proceed to St. Domingo to purchase a caravel 
on behalf of Columbus. In the interim the admiral 
was having a bad time of it at Santa Gloria, and in 
January, 1504, his men broke out into open mutiny. 
The disaffected, finding that they were unable to 
return to Spain in canoes, roamed over the Island of 
Jamaica, committing excesses wherever they went. 

6 



82 THE UNITED STATES. 

The natives retorted, but Columbus regained liis power 
over them by predicting that the moon would change 
her colour in testimony of the evils which would fall 
upon the i)eople. It was fortunate that Columbus 
knew of an eclipse at this time, for it brought the 
natives in terror and submission to his feet. The 
mutiny among the admiral's own men was quelled at 
last by a sharp and sanguinary action. 

On the 28th of June, 1504, two relief caravels 
arrived at Santa Gloria, one sent by Mendez and the 
other by Ovando. Columbus and his men at once 
embarked, but they did not reach St. Domingo until 
the 13th of August. A month after that the admiral 
set sail for Spain ; and after suffering great hardship 
and famine, as well as being prostrated by sickness, 
he reached San Lucar on the 7th of November, 1504. 
Here he lay sick for many months, during which 
period his truest friend, Queen Isabella, passed away. 
On his recovery Columbus proceeded to the capital, 
but it was only to have his claim finally rejected by 
the King. 

Columbus died at Valladolid on the 20th of May, 
1506, his last words being, " Into Thy hands, Lord, 
I commit my spirit." Infirm of body, but in full 
possession of all his faculties, and yet so poor that 
he could not frequently pay for his sustenance, the 
discoverer of a new world expired in a small apart- 
ment of a modest house, with a few faithful friends 
and followers standing by his bedside. A small tablet 
has been placed on the front of the building — now 
some six hundred years old — which briefly states, 
" Here died Columbus." 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 83 

The remains of the great discoverer were buried 
at Valladolid, but afterwards removed to Seville. 
Here they were not allowed to remain, however, for 
in 1536 they were taken with great pomp to St. 
Domingo, and interred in the Cathedral, In 1796 
they were once more removed, and buried in the 
Cathedral of Havana with imposing ceremonies, 
though some authorities assert that the remains were 
not those of Columbus, but of his son Diego. But the 
Duke of Veragua, the only remaining descendant of 
Columbus in the female line, on being appealed to on 
this point, and also as to whether the discoverer was 
a native of Calvi, in Corsica, wrote, " I do not think 
any of the historians or writers have been successful 
in their attempts to deprive Genoa of the honour of 
being the birthplace of Columbus, or in taking from 
Havana the glory of possessing his ashes." The last 
legitimate descendant of Columbus in the male line 
died in 1578. 

A remarkable letter by Columbus, never before pub- 
lished, appears in the sketch of the explorer written 
by General J. Grant Wilson for The Cyclopcedia of 
American Biogrcqihj. It was written in Spanish, and 
addressed to Agostino Barberigo, Doge of Venice, to 
whom Columbus had previously made unsuccessful 
proposals of exploration. Penned two days before 
the admiral set sail from Saltes on his first great 
expedition, it lay for nearly four hundred years in the 
Venetian Archives undiscovered. The letter runs as 
follows : 

"Magnificent Sir, — Since your Republic has not 
deemed it convenient to accept my offers, and all the 



84 THE UNITED STATES. 

spite of my many enemies lias been bronght in force 
to oppose my petition, I have thrown myself in the 
arms of God, my Maker, and He, by the intercession 
of the Saints, has caused the most clement King of 
Castile not to refuse to generously assist my project 
toward the discovery of a new world. And praising - 
thereby the good God, I obtained the placing under 
my command of men and ships, and am about to 
start on a voyage to that famous laud, grace to 
which intent God has been pleased to bestow upon 
me." 

The four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 
America by Columbus was celebrated in Europe and 
the United States with great rejoiciogs in 1892. At 
Huelva the festivals began on the 3 1st of July, and 
vessels were sent by Great Britain, France, the United 
States, Austria, Greece, Portugal, the Argentine Re- 
public, and Mexico. The caravel Santa Marna, con- 
structed as an exact reproduction of the vessel in which 
Columbus sailed, set sail over the Bay of Cadiz, bound 
for Huelva, where she was moored off Palos, on the 
very spot where her great original was anchored. On 
the 2nd of August she went out to sea, and returned 
amidst salutes from the lines of ships in the bay. A 
congratulatory telegram from the Alcalde of Huelva 
was despatched to President Harrison, who suitably 
responded. In October the Queen Regent of Spain 
and the young King visited Cadiz, when the most 
brilliant celebrations occurred. At Huelva the Nina 
and Pinta were received by the Spanish and foreign 
war-shijjs, twenty-three in number. The town and 
shipping were brilliantly illuminated on the evening 



THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 85 

of the 10th. The 12th of October being the anni- 
versary of the day when America was first seen 
from the ships of Columbus, the day was observed 
throughout the principal cities of Spain, and espe- 
cially at Yalladolid, where the great explorer died. 

At Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus, two gold 
medals were struck, one for the Queen of Spain 
and one for the King of Italy. The Municipal 
Palace was thronged by a brilliant assemblage in 
the evening, including the King and Queen of Italy, 
the ministers, ambassadors, officers of the fleet, etc. 
In the port of Genoa were war-ships representing 
fifteen nations. At a later date there was a Columbus 
Exhibition and a historical procession representing 
the return of Columbus. There was also an Exhibi- 
tion at Madrid, and one of its most interesting features 
was a facsimile reproduction of the first chart on 
which the American Continent was delineated. The 
original was traced by Juan de la Cosa, the pilot 
of CoUimbus, in 1500. A grand historical cavalcade 
was subsequently witnessed by the royal family and 
their guests, the King and Queen of Portugal. 

At New York there was a grand naval parade 
in the harbour, by vessels of all nations, early in 
October. The 12th was observed as a general 
holiday; and the Columbus statue, sent as a present 
from Italy to America, was unveiled. A noble statue 
by a Spanish sculptor was also unveiled in the Central 
Park. Reproductions of the three vessels with which 
Columbus first went out were exhibited; and after 
being taken first to Havana and then to the 
Chicago Exhibition, they were formally presented 



86 THE UNITED STATES. 

to the United States Government, to be preserved 
as relics. 

Accounts differ as to the details of the personal 
appearance of Columbus, but all agree in stating 
that he had a commanding presence. He was above 
the middle height, with a long countenance, rather 
full cheeks, an aquiline nose, and light grey eyes full 
of expression. His hair, naturally of a light colour, 
turned white when he was quite a young man. 

He had many fine qualities of character, and was 
magnanimous and benevolent, though also impetuous 
and irritable. While practical in action, he was a 
man of ardent impulses and strong imagination. 
Sometimes he lacked the iron nerve of a leader; and 
although he was sincerely and earnestly religious, 
his conduct in the capture and sale of slaves can 
never be inherently justified, though it was counte- 
nanced by the jurists and divines of his time. He 
desired to obtain revenues for the Crown by his new 
discoveries, and to Christianize the slaves ; but it is 
the worst way in the world to attempt to convert 
a man by first taking his freedom from him. The 
full value of his discovery he never lived to realize, 
and at his death he believed that the land which 
he had discovered was the long-sought-for Indies. 
But with all his failings and limitations, he was 
one of the world's truly great men ; and as such his 
glory can never fade. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 

THE first discoverer of the mainland of North 
America was John Cabot, and it is to his remark- 
able adventures, as well as to tliose of his more 
celebrated son Sebastian Cabot, that we must now 
direct attention. 

Neither the time nor the place of John Cabot's 
birth can be definitely fixed. The first authentic 
information concerning him appears in the Venetian 
Archives, where it is stated that he was accorded the 
rights of a citizen on the 28th of March, 1476, after 
the required fifteen years' residence. Yet, according 
to other authorities, some time before the latter year 
Cabot had left Venice for London, there to follow 
the trade of merchandise. Instead of staying in 
London, however, he made his way to Bristol, then 
the second city in the kingdom. As, being a foreigner, 
he was not permitted to settle in the city itself, he 
took up his abode in one of the suburbs. This was 
probably a district now known as Cathay, so-called 
after the Indies, and a large Indian trade is still 
carried on in its midst. Here at least two of John 
Cabot's sons were born, Sebastian and Sanctus. 

Sebastian told a contemporary of his that he was 

87 



88 THE UNITED STATES. 

born in Bristol, and that when he was four years old 
he was taken by his father to Venice. After remain- 
ing there for some years, he was again conveyed to 
England, and these facts gave rise to the impression 
that he was born in Venice. The date of his birth 
has been placed between 1474 and 1477. Both father 
and son seem to have been fired with an adventurous 
zeal, to which they were stimulated by the deeds of 
Columbus, a man whom they warmly and reverently 
admired. 

In the year 1495 John Cabot was residing at Bristol, 
and doubtless had been for some years. Under date of 
March 5, 1495 (Old Style), Henry VII. granted a patent 
licensing Cabot and his three sons — Lewis, Sebastian, 
and Sanctus — or either of them, their heirs or assigns, 
to search for islands, provinces, or regions, in the 
eastern, western, or northern seas ; and, as vassals 
of the King, to occupy the territories that might be 
found, with an exclusive right to their commerce, on 
paying the King a fifth part of all the profits. This 
interesting document runs thus : 

" Henry, by the grace of God, etc., etc. 

"Be it known to all, that we have given and granted, 
and by these presents do give and grant, to our 
well-beloved John Cabot, citizen of Venice, to Lewis, 
Sebastian, and Sanctus, sons of the said John, and 
to their heirs and deputies, full and free authority, 
leave, and power to sail to all parts, countries, and seas 
of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our 
banners and ensigns, with five ships, of what burthen 
or quality soever they be, and as many mariners and 
men as they will take with them in the said ships, 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 89 

u])on their own proper costs and charges^ to seek out, 
discover, and find whatsoever Isles, Countries, Regions, 
or Provinces of the Heathen and Infidels, whatsoever 
they be, and in whatsoever part of the world, which 
before this time have been unknown to all Christians. 
We have granted to them and every of them and 
their deputies, and have given them our licence, to set 
up our banners and ensigns in every village, town, 
castle, isle, or mainland of them newly found ; and 
that the said John and his sons and their heirs may 
subdue, occupy, and possess all such towns, cities, etc., 
by them found, which they can subdue, occupy, and 
possess as our vassals and lieutenants, getting to ns 
the rale, title, and jurisdiction of the said villages, 
towns, etc. 

" Yet so that the said John and his sons and their 
heirs, of all the fruits, profits, and commodities grow- 
ing from such navigation, shall be held and bound to 
pay to us, in wares or money, the fifth jmrt of the 
capital gain so gotten for every their voyage, as often 
as they shall arrive at our port of Bristol (at which 
port they shall be obliged only to arrive), deducting 
all manner of necessary costs and charges by them 
made ; we giving and granting unto them and their 
heirs and deputies that they shall be free from all 
payments of customs on all such merchandise they 
shall bring with them from the places so newly found. 
And, moreover, we have given and granted to them 
and their heirs and deputies that all the firm land, 
islands, villages, towns, etc., they shall chance to find, 
may not, without licence of the said John Cabot and 
his sons, be so frequented and visited, under pain of 



90 THE UNITED STATES. 

losing tbeir ships and all the goods of them who shall 
presume to sail to the places so found. 

" Willing and commanding strictly all and singular 
our subjects, as well on land as on sea, to give good 
assistance to the said John and his sons and deputies, 
and that as well in arming and furnishing their ships 
and vessels as in provision of food and buying victuals 
for their money, and all other things by them to be 
provided necessary for the said navigation, they do 
give them all their favours and assistance. 

" Witness myself at Westminster, 5th March, in 
the eleventh year of our reign, or 1495 a.d," 

There are accounts of a hypothetical voyage said 
to have been made by the Cabots in 1474 — that is, 
long before Henry VII.'s first charter. This idea 
would seem to be supported by Sebastian Cabot's map 
now in the Biblioth^que Imp^riale, Paris. Barrow, 
in his History of Voyages, and other writers, also 
support the view. Yet there would certainly be some 
more definite information on the subject if such a 
voyage had actually been made, and it had resulted 
in important consequences. As facts remain, however, 
historians and biographers begin their dating of the 
Cabot discoveries with Henry's charter of 1495. 

For some reason or other, although the King's 
patent was granted in March, 1495, John Cabot and 
his son Sebastian did not set sail from Bristol until 
May, 1497. The adventurers held a westward course 
for an estimated distance of seven hundred leagues. On 
the 24th of June land was sighted, which John Cabot 
believed to be part of the dominions of the Grand Cham, 
or Khan, but which was really Cape Breton Island and 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 91 

Nova Scotia. This shore he coasted for three hundred 
leagues, finding no traces of human habitation, and 
then he set sail for home, reaching Bristol in August. 

A letter written by one Lorenzo Pasc[ualigo to his 
brother, and dated London, August 23, 1497, thus 
describes the voyage and John Cabot's return and 
reception in England : 

" The Venetian, our countryman, who went with 
a ship from Bristol in quest of new islands, is re- 
turned, and says that seven hundred leagues hence 
he discovered land, the territory of the Grand Cham ; 
he coasted for three hundred leagues and landed ; 
saw no human beings, but he has brought hither 
to the King certain snares which had been set to 
catch game, and a needle for making nets ; he also 
found some felled trees, wherefore he supposed there 
were inhabitants, and returned to his ship in alarm. 

" He was three months on the voyage, and on his 
return he saw two islands to starboard, but would not 
land, time being precious, as he was short of provisions. 

" He says that the tides are slack, and do not flow 
as they do here. The King of England is much 
pleased with this intelligence. 

" The King has promised that in the spring our 
countryman shall have ten ships armed to his order, 
and at his request has conceded him all the prisoners, 
except such as are confined for high treason, to man 
his fleet. 

" The King has also given him money wherewith to 
amuse himself till then, and he is now at Bristol 
with his wife, who is also a Venetian, and with his 
sons. 



92 THE UNITED STATES. 

" His name is Jiian Cabot, and lie is styled the Great 
Admiral ; vast hononr is paid him ; lie dresses in silk ; 
and these English run after him like mad people, so 
that he can enlist as many of them as he pleases, and 
a number of our own. The discoverer of these places 
planted on his new-found lands a large cross, with one 
flag of England and another of St. Mark, by reason of 
his being a Venetian, so that our banner has floated 
very far afield. August 23, 1497." 

Sebastian Cabot is entitled to be honoured as well 
as his father for this first successful expedition to 
the North American Continent. The recent scholarly 
researches by Mr. Kawdon Brown among the Vene- 
tian Archives have furnished irrefragable proof that 
this expedition of the Cabots, under the auspices of 
Henry VII., in 1497, resulted in the discovery of 
the continent, and its being taken possession of for 
England. 

Owing mainly to the discoveries of Columbus, the 
theory that the earth is a sphere had been generally 
accepted by advanced thinkers, and it was believed 
that the shortest route to the Indies lay westward. 
Cabot's discovery, therefore, created great excitement 
in England and Europe. A portrait of Sebastian 
Cabot was subsequently painted by Holbein, and 
Cabot's map was reproduced by Clement Adams. 
Several other maps and charts are suj^posed to have 
been given up by a friend of Cabot, after the latter's 
death, to Philip of Spain. The portrait by Holbein 
was painted at a time when Sebastian was the Worship- 
ful Governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company, 
and when he had under him in his of&cial capacity 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 93 

the Lord High Admiral, the Lord Steward, the Lord 
Treasurer, and other State dignitaries. 

One report alleges that John Cabot was knighted, 
but the matter is very doubtful. If it took place, it 
must have been on the admiral's return from his great 
voyage. It is further possible that his death ensued 
close upon his knighthood, which would account for 
the lack of definite information on the subject. He 
probably died in the year 1498, and it is known that 
he left his son Sebastian very rich, and full of 
ambition. 

A second charter was granted by Henry in February, 
1498, not long before the death of John, and Sebastian 
Cabot went forth upon this expedition alone. This 
new charter was really only an extension of the first, 
which it did not in any way set aside, and which still 
remained valid. The suj^plementary charter gave 
Cabot extra powers to press ships at the same rate 
of payment which the King gave for his own service, 
and to enlist men for the venture ; there was in it 
no bar to his trading or granting licences, no em- 
powering other persons to trade independently of the 
Cabot family, and no release from the one-fifth tribute 
which, under the first charter, they were to pay to 
the King out of their profits. 

It was in May, 1498, that Sebastian Cabot sailed 
from Bristol in command of two ships, manned by 
volunteers, in search of a north-west passage. He 
went so far north that in the early part of July day- 
light was almost continuous. The sea, nevertheless, 
was so full of icebergs that he worked southward, and 
discovered what is generally believed to have been 



94 THE UNITED STATES. 

Newfonnclland. Proceeding farther, he reached the 
mainland, made several landings, dealt with the 
natives, and followed the coast southward as far as 
Chesapeake Bay. Yet notwithstanding this discovery 
of a wide domain nnder the Temperate Zone, the 
voyage was not successful in its original object — that 
of opening up the passage to the Indies. But we are 
struck with admiration at what Cabot did achieve ; 
for from the 68° N. latitude to the 30°, or from the 
northernmost part of Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of 
Mexico, he was the first European who surveyed its 
coasts, or attempted to colonize its deserted shores. 

It is thought that Cabot landed a portion of his 
men at about Davis's Inlet or Port Manvers, and they 
were to colonize the country ; but the settlement 
proved abortive. In Stoid's Annals, 1498, there is a 
passage which shows that, among other objects in this 
voyage, Cabot had in view trade and colonization as 
well as discovery ; that the King shared in the expense, 
probably fitting out one ship and giving help to the 
men ; that the coast, inhabitants, beasts, fishes, and 
birds observed prove that the scene of their principal 
operations was the country now known as Labrador, 
but then called by Cabot " the land of the baccalaos " 
(cod-fish) ; and that Cabot was the first man who 
discovered Hudson's Bay, which he afterwards more 
thoroughly explored. 

Cabot tendered his services to Henry VII. in 1499 
for another voyage ; but as the English sovereign was 
at this time fully occupied with threatening domestic 
troubles, his offer failed to meet with a favourable 
reception. Nevertheless, Seyer, the historian of 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 95 

Bristol, states that Cabot set forth from that western 
port aud made great discoveries. One Hojeda, a 
Spanish navigator, found an Englishman and his 
crew at Caqnibaco at the close of 1499, and it is 
conjectured that the traveller was Cabot. He had 
probably taken up his explorations where he had 
suspended them before, on the coast of Florida, and 
proceeded southwards, arriving at the place where 
Hojeda met the English. There is a further tradition 
to the effect that Cabot afterwards went north, and 
was engaged in . colonizing Newfoundland and the 
neighbourhood. On the other hand, Rymer considers 
that it was the Portuguese and certain other merchants 
who sailed in 1.502 and visited Newfoundland. 

At this time the contemporary achievements of 
Vasco di Gama were so much more brilliant that the 
exploits of the Cabots were outshone, and they were 
so careless of their chartered rights that the patent 
giving them exclusive privileges was lost or mislaid. 

After the death of Henry YII., Ferdinand V. of 
Spain wrote to Lord Willoughby, Captain-General of 
the King of England, to send over Sebastian Cabot, 
he having heard of his ability as a seaman. In 
September, 1512, accordingly, Cabot went to Spain ; 
and after being appointed one of the " Council of the 
New Indies," Ferdinand's successor named him pilot- 
major of the kingdom, a liberal salary was apportioned 
him, and his residence was fixed at the city of Seville. 
Peter Martyr saw much of him there, and states that 
his first voyage was arranged to take place in March, 
1516. Unfortunately, the King died in January 
of that year, and the order for the expedition was 



96 THE UNITED STATES. 

countermanded, owing to the jealousy of the Spaniards 
against foreigners. Cabot thereupon returned to 
England, and found immediate employment under 
Henry VIII. 

In 1517 he set forth on a voyage the object of which 
was to find an opening through Hudson's Bay to 
the back of Newfoundland. Hakluyt states that 
Cabot " sailed very far westward, with a quarter of 
the north, on the north side of Labrador, on the 11th 
of June, until he came to the septentrional latitude of 
67^° ; and finding the sea still open, might and would 
have gone to Cathay, if the mutiny of the master and 
mariners had not been." Another report says that it 
was one of his captains, Sir Thomas Pert, whose faint 
heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect. 
There seems to be no question that Cabot was on the 
very verge ot a great discovery, having attained to the 
straits which lead to the magnetic pole, and within a 
short distance of the passage whose existence McClure, 
McClintock, and others have verified in the nineteenth 
century. 

Although this voyage produced excellent scientific 
results, cowardice robbed it of what might have been 
its greatest glory. Cabot returned dispirited to 
England, only to find the country being ravaged by 
that terrible scourge, the sweating sickness. All com- 
merce was at a standstill ; so when Charles V. visited 
England in 1520, he took Cabot back with him, and 
the latter now entered upon his duties as pilot-major. 
But Cabot desired more active work ; and as Spain 
was at this time very jealous of England, he now 
opened up negotiations with Venice with a view to 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 97 

employment. It is to be regretted that Cabot swerved 
from the truth in conducting these negotiations, which 
after all seem to have come to nothing. 

In April, 1524, a conference of geographers assembled 
at Badajoz. Cabot was president, and the son of 
Columbus had a seat at the board. Portugal retired 
from the conference in high dudgeon, when it was de- 
cided that the coveted Spice Islands were declared to be 
within Spanish waters by twenty degrees. Portugal 
prepared a fleet to enforce her claims ; and Spain, 
anxious to secure the treasures of the East, formed an 
exploring company in the ensuing September. The 
Council of the Indies gave permission to Cabot to take 
the command, and he entered into a bond for the faith- 
ful execution of his trust. The Emperor Charles sanc- 
tioned a squadron of three vessels, of not less than one 
hundred tons, and one hundred and fifty men. A small 
caravel was added by a private individual — probably 
Robert Thorne, merchant of Bristol, who was then at 
Seville — and the title of captain-general was conferred 
on Cabot. The Emperor was to receive four thousand 
ducats and a share of the profits. The object of the 
expedition was to find a direct south-west passage to 
Asia, by way of the Straits of Magellan. 

Owing to Portuguese intrigues, the expedition did 
not set sail until April, 1526, and even then the rival 
power sent out a spying squadron after it. Cabot 
made for the Brazils, by way of the Canaries, Cape de 
Verde, and Cape Augustine ; but he was soon ham- 
pered by difficulties. Mendez, the second in command, 
was inefficient, and sealed orders had been given to 
each ship as to the succession in command, which 

7 



98 THE UNITED STATES. 

practically put a preminm upon the murder of tlie 
commanders. Provisions ran short, and there was a 
mutiny ; but Cabot, who stood almost alone, courage- 
ously seized the mutineers, and landed them at the 
first point touched at, where they were afterwards 
taken up by the Portuguese commander Garcia. Cabot 
sent home two of his friends, who made satisfactory 
explanations to the Emperor. Still, calumnies were 
circulated to his disadvantage; but their value may 
be gauged from the fact that when Cabot returned to 
Spain Charles V. at once reinstated him in his high 
and honourable office of pilot-major. 

After quelling the mutiny, Cabot proceeded to the 
great river La Plata, which had been previously dis- 
covered by his immediate predecessor as pilot-major, 
De Solis, who lost his life on one of the islands at the 
mouth of the river. Cabot had now only two ships 
and a caravel, one vessel having been lost on the 
voyage. He pushed up the inlet of the La Plata, and 
came to an island which he named St. Gabriel, a name 
it still bears. Leaving his ships here for the boats, 
he explored seven leagues up the stream until he 
reached another river, and a port which he named 
St. Salvador. 

The stream he was now exploring was the Rio 
Navanjos, or the lower branch of the mouth of the 
Parana, near its confluence with the Uruguay. He 
sent for his vessels, and erected a fort upon one 
of the islands. Avoiding the Uruguay, he now pro- 
ceeded westward up the Parana, and built another fort 
at Terceiro. In both the forts he left garrisons. He 
ultimately reached the Parana's junction with the 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 99 

Paraguay, and pursued the conrse of the latter for 
thirty-four leagues. In describing this voyage, he 
said, " I found an exceedingly large and great river, 
named at this present time the Rio de la Plata — that 
is, the river of silver — into which I sailed, and followed 
it into the firme land more than one hundred and 
twenty leagues, finding it everywhere very faire, and 
inhabited with infinite people, which, with admiration, 
came running daily to our ships. Into this river run 
so many other rivers that it is in manner incredible." 

The natives were of a superior class, who cultivated 
the soil. But they were also lawless, and seized three 
Spaniards who had strayed to gather the fruit of the 
palm tree. Cabot hastened to their succour, and a 
severe battle ensued. Three hundred natives were 
slain, and Cabot had the misfortune to lose twenty- 
five out of his small forces. He sent down his 
wounded, and apprised his faithful adherent Caro, 
governor of one of the constructed forts, of his loss 
and their danger. Garcia soon afterwards arrived at 
Fort Sanctus Spiritus, and summoned Caro to surrender 
in the name of the Emperor. Caro nobly replied that 
he held the fort in the name of the Emperor and 
Sebastian Cabot, and would never surrender it, though 
he was quite willing to give Garcia a welcome. He 
begged Garcia to look out for wounded Spaniards on 
his way up the river ; but the latter heartlessly 
neglected to do so, and pursued his own course. 
Cabot and Garcia eventually met, but no record 
exists of their interview. 

Cabot had now reached a point where he was in 
sight of the mountains of Peru, and he was hoping 



100 THE UNITED STATES. 

to reap the fruit of Ms labours, when once more the 
cruel hand of Fate was against him. The events 
which succeeded are thus described by Mr. Nicholls in 
his sketch of Cabot : 

" Charles V. had outrun his exchequer, and was 
afflicted with a disease very prevalent in modern days, 
impecuniosity. His Cortes refused him money. He 
had mortgaged the Moluccas to Portugal, and his 
treasury was empty. 

" Just then Pizarro, overflowing with ambition, well 
known at Court, personally importunate, but asking 
for no money, only for the government of the 
countries which he might conquer, assailed the 
Emperor continually. 

" Cabot was shelved ; Pizarro succeeded. Of his 
successful but infamous career we need say no more 
than this, that if Cabot had achieved the conquest of 
Peru, the blackest page in the history of Spanish 
America would never have been written. 

" Whilst waiting, sick at heart, with hope deferred, 
Cabot erected forts, administered justice, and reduced 
all the surrounding natives to obedience to the 
Emperor. Ever active, when no supplies came from 
Spain, he set the whole party to work, rapidly raised 
sufficient food, made experiments on the fertility of 
the soil, carefully noting the results, which, with 
great minuteness, he afterwards reported to the 
Emperor. 

" He classified also the various productions of the 
country, and graphically describes the marvellous 
fecundity of the swine, and also of the horses, both 
of which they had imported from Spain : these latter 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 101 

became the parent stock whence sprang the vast wild 
hordes which scour the Pampas to this day. 

"A clever wit of the last generation said of a 
certain nobleman that he was ready to take the helm 
of the State or the command of the Channel fleet 
at an hour's notice. It was witty, but not new ; for 
here we actually have the greatest commander and 
navigator of his age organizing a nation from the most 
discordant elements, and developing its powers under 
manifest disadvantages. 

" We are naturally proud of the Bristol mariner 
whose personal agency gave to England and her sturdy 
oifspring their valuable possessions in the north, and 
to Spain the rich and well- watered regions in the 
south of the American Continent ; and if any one 
should be at all curious to see his monument in his 
native city, let them know that it lies with Sir Thomas 
Lawrence's, in the vast limits of futurity. 

" In the midst of his labours — and, remember, they 
extended over five years in this region — the same evil 
genius which had followed him across the Atlantic 
was constantly marring his efforts, and finally struck 
a well-nigh fatal blow to the expedition. 

" Garcia had swept the country, and sailed with his 
spoil ; but he had left behind him a party of his 
followers, who held themselves amenable to no law. 
These men, located at Sanctus Spiritus, were guilty 
of some acts of atrocity towards the natives, which 
roused their wildest resentment. 

" It is expressly stated that with this act, whatever 
it was, Cabot had nothing at all to do ; but the fierce 
and sanguinary Indians made no distinction. 



102 TEE UNITED STATES. 

" Secret meetings were held, a plan of action was 
decided upon, and it was determined to cut o£f every 
white man in the country. 

" A little before daybreak the enraged nation burst, 
with one fell swoop, down on and carried the en- 
trenchments of Sanctus Spiritusj putting the feeble 
garrison to the sword. 

" Here Caro, the faithful, probably perished in 
command, for we henceforth lose sight of him. 

" Maddened with success, they rapidly traverse the 
intervening country, and try the same tactics at Fort 
Salvador. 

" But better watch and ward is kept here. ' Defence, 
not Defiance,' is the Bristol man's motto, or rather, as 
on his portrait, ' Spes una in Deo est ' ; but he watches 
as well as hopes, fights as well as prays, and beats 
the enemy off. 

" Sad faces come down the river a few days after- 
wards ; reinforcements, sent to alarm and put the 
advance garrison on their guard, return dispirited ; 
they had found Sanctus Spiritus desolate, a ruin, and 
their friends and companions slain to a man. So 
Cabot ships the rec^uisite supplies, dismantles the fort, 
embarks the remnant of his people, and quits for ever 
the ill-omened shore." 

Cabot returned to Spain in 1531, and resumed the 
functions of his high office ; but after some years 
he longed to return to Bristol, which he regarded as 
his home. Strype tells us that in pursuance of this 
desire he came to England, and settled in Bristol 
in 1548, the first year of Edward VL, and the 
beginning of a reign of toleration in religion. Cabot 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 103 

seems to have been a man of deep piety, for we 
find him eschewing the vices and follies of the 
time, advising morning and evening prayers daily, 
and recommending that " the Bible be daily read 
devoutly and Christianly to God's honour, and for 
His grace to be obtained by humble and hearty 
prayer." 

Not long had Cabot been resident in Bristol when 
the Spanish Ambassador preferred a demand before 
the English Council for his return to Spain, on the 
ground that he was a servant of the Emperor and 
received a pension from him. Cabot had no quarrel 
with the Emperor, but he refused to go either into 
Spain or Flanders, though he was willing to give the 
Emperor all the information he desired. When the 
Emperor learnt his decision, he struck off his pension ; 
but Edward VI. immediately gave him another one 
of two hundred and fifty marks, or £166 13s. 4:d. — 
a considerable sum in those days. 

The nature of Cabot's employment under the English 
Government seems to have been as a kind of super- 
intendent of the naval affairs of the kingdom. He 
examined and licensed pilots, etc., and he assisted the 
King in his studies in navigation, explaining to him 
the variation of the compass and other matters. He 
also constructed a number of invaluable charts and 
maps, which have unfortunately been destroyed. An 
edition of Ptolemy's GeograpJiia^ published at Rome 
in 1508, shows that Cabot had ascertained exactly the 
position of the magnetic pole, and pointed out the 
spot where the ship's comjiass lost its specific property. 
The adventurer was thoroughly practical in his plans 



104 THE UNITED STATES. 

and aims, and tanglit others to follow in his train and 
continue his investigations. 

In the year 1551 Cabot brought to fruition an 
important project which had long occuj)ied his thoughts ; 
it at the same time crushed an extensive monopoly, 
and established Cabot's title to be regarded as one of 
the fathers of free trade. Letters of incorporation 
were issued on the 13th of December, 1551, dechiring 
that, " in consideration of his being the chiefest setter 
forth of this journey or voyage, therefore we make, 
ordain, and constitute him, the said Sebastian Cabot, 
to be the first and present governor during his natural 
life, without removal." The company thus founded was 
that of the Merchant Adventurers, and in December, 
1552, the Bristol branch of it was incorporated under 
a separate charter. 

We read that, "at the very outset of the society, 
it was to encounter a difficulty which would have 
appalled a man of small mental calibre, and led him 
to give it up in despair. 

" The German cities, Antwerp and Hamburg, held 
exclusive possession of the trade of Northern and 
Central Europe. By gifts or bribes they had obtained 
large concessions in the duties and customs of England. 

" They paid much less, for instance, when they 
exported English cloth, than the native manufacturer, 
if he chose to export, had to pay. 

" In importing goods at a favoured and lower rate 
for themselves, they also furtively introduced large 
quantities, as their own (for a consideration), at the 
low rate of duty. 

" Having thus secured the command of the English 



THE CABOT S AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 105 

market, as well as the monopoly of the foreign, they 
set their own value on goods, and actually brought 
English wool down to eighteenpence per stone ; 
employed no English ships; and with their joint stocks 
playing into each other's hands, crushed the English 
merchants. They were called the Stilliard (Steelyard) 
merchants. 

" Cabot's genius rose to the occasion. He saw no 
reason why, these impediments once removed, England 
should not become the manufactory of the world, and 
her ships the carriers of its produce. 

" The father of free trade, he set himself against 
this monopoly, and manfully did he battle with it. 

" By the King's entries in his private journal, we 
see the deep interest that Edward felt in a matter 
that so seriously concerned the welfare of his subjects; 
these entries are continued over five months, and are 
often of considerable length. 

"At last, on February 23, a.d. 1551, success crowned 
Cabot's persevering efforts, and a result so auspicious 
to commerce as the breaking up of the close monopoly 
and so advantageous to the public revenue was not 
forgotten. 

" In March ' Sebastian Cabot, the great seaman, had 
£200, by way of the King's Majesty's reward.' 

" This huge obstacle removed, the merchant adven- 
turers set to work in earnest to open the way and 
passage to the northern seas. 

" New ships are ordered to be built, strong and well- 
seasoned planks are selected for the purpose, and, 
to guard against worms, ' which many times pierceth 
and eateth through the strongest oake,' it is resolved 



106 THE UNITED STATES. 

to 'cover the keel of the shippe with thinne sheets 
of leade.' 

" This was the introduction of sheathing into the 
British marine ; the art had been practised in Spain, 
and Cabot, if not the original inventor, must be 
allowed the honour of introducing it into England." 

Strype affirms that this famous expedition set out 
from Bristol, where Cabot lived, and where likewise 
the ships were probably built. The gallant Sir Hugh 
Willoughby was appointed to the command, and 
Richard Chancellor — who had been brought up with 
Sir Philip Sidney — was named pilot-major to the 
expedition, with command of one of the vessels. 
Chancellor, who was an intimate friend of Cabot, was 
a keen, observant man, who noted with remarkable 
insight the customs, religious habits, manners of the 
people, and the laws of the country visited. Chan- 
cellor's sailing master was Stephen Burroughs, after- 
wards chief pilot of England. 

Cabot drew up a book of instructions for the guidance 
and government of the expedition, and these instruc- 
tions were ordered to be read publicly on board each 
ship once a week. Nothing could more clearly show 
Cabot's foresight as a navigator than this book of 
rules, while they also reveal much of the inner char- 
acter of the man. It is of great interest to note 
the chief points in the instructions, which ran as 
follows : 

" Ordinances, instructions, and advertisements of 
and for the direction of the intended voyage to Cathay, 
compiled, made, and delivered by the right worshipful 
M. Sebastian Cabota, Esqr., Governour of the Mysterie 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIKST ENGLISH COLONY. 107 

and Companie of the Merchants Adventurers, for the 
discoverie of regions, dominions, islands, and places 
Tinknowen, the 9th day of May, in the yere of our 
Lord God 1553, and in the 7 yere of the reigne of 
our most dread sovereigne Lord Edward YL, by the 
grace of God King of England, France, and Ireland, 
defender of the faith, and of the Church of England 
and Ireland, in earth, supreme head. 

" 7 item. That the merchants and other skilful 
persons, in writing, shall daily write, describe, and 
put in memorie the navigation of each day and night, 
with the points and observations of the lands, tides, 
elements, altitude of the sunne, course of the moon 
and starres, and the same so noted by the order of the 
master and pilot of every ship to be put in writing ; 
the captaine-generall assembling the masters togethe) 
once every weeke (if winde and weather shall server 
to conferre all the observations and notes of the said 
ships, to the intent it may appeare wherein the 
notes do agree and wherein they dissent, and upon 
good debatement, deliberation, and conclusion deter- 
mined to put the same into a common leger, to remain 
of record for the companie ; the like order to be kept 
in proportioning of the cardes, astrolabes, and other 
instruments prepared for the voyage, at the charge of 
the companie. 

"12 item. That no blaspheming of God, or detest- 
able swearing, be used in any ship, nor communica- 
tion of ribaldrie, filthy tales, or ungodly talke to be 
suffered in the company of any ship, neither dicing, 
tabling, nor other divelish games to be frequented, 
whereby ensueth not only povertie to the players, but 



108 THE UNITED STATES. 

also strife, variance, brauling, fighting, and often- 
times murther, to the utter destruction of the parties, 
and provol^ing of God's most just wrath and sword of 
vengeance. These and all such like pestilences and 
contagions of vices and sinnes to be eschewed, and the 
offenders once monished, and not reforming, to be 
punished at the discretion of the captaine and masters 
as appertaineth. 

"13 item. That morning and evening prayer, with 
other common services appointed by the King's 
Majestic, and lawes of this realme, be reade and 
saide in every ship daily by the minister or the 
Admirall, and the merchant or some other person 
learned in other ships ; and the Bible or paraphrases 
to be read devoutly and Christianly to God's honour 
and for His grace to be obtained and had by humble 
and hearty prayer of the navigants accordingly. 

"23 item. Forasmuch as our people and shippes 
may appear unto them strange and wonderous, and 
theirs also to ours, it is to be considered how much 
they may be used, learning much of their natures and 
dispositions by some one such person as you may 
first either allure or take to be brought aboard your 
shippes, and there to learn as you may, without 
violence or force, and no woman to be tempted or 
intreated to incontinence or dishonestie. 

" 26 item. Every nation and region to be considered 
advisedly, and not to provoke them by any distance, 
laughing, contempt, or such like ; but to use them 
with prudent circumspection, with all gentleness and 
courtesie ; and not to tarry long in one place until you 
shall have obtained the most worthy place that may 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIKST ENGLISH COLONY. 109 

be found in siicli sort, as you may returne with, victuals 
sufficient prosperously." 

In the 32nd item he refers to the difficulties expe- 
rienced from timidity and incredulity ; and speaks 
of the " obstacles which had ministered matter of 
suspicion in some heads that this voyage could not 
succeed, for the extremitie of the North Pole, lacke 
of passage, and such like, which have caused waver- 
ing minds and doubtful heads, not only to withdraw 
themselves from the adventures of this voyage, but 
also dissuaded others from the same," etc., etc. 

" 33rd item of instructions. No conspiracies, part- 
takings, factions, false tales, untrue reports, which be 
the very seedes and fruits of contention, discord, and 
confusion by evil tongues, to be suffered, but the same 
and all other ungodliness to be chastened charitably 
with brotherly love, and always obedience to be used 
and practised by all persons in their degrees, not 
only for duty and conscience' sake towards God, under 
whose merciful hand navigants, above all other 
creatures, naturally be most high and vicine, but also 
for prudent and worldly policy and publicke weale, 
considering and always having present in your minds 
that you be all our most loyal King's subjects, and 
naturally with daily remembrance of the great im- 
portance of the voyage, the honour, glory, praise, and 
benefit that depend of and upon the same toward 
the common wealth of this noble realme, the advance- 
ment of you the travelers therein, your wives and 
children, and so to endeavour yourselves as that you 
may satisfy the expectation of them who, at their 
great costes, charges, and expenses, have so furnished 



no THE UNITED STATES. 

you in good sort and plenty of all necessaries as the 
like was never in any realme seen, nsed, or known, 
requisite and needful for such an exploit, which is 
most likely to be achieved and brought to good effect, 
if every person in his vocation shall endeavour him- 
self according to his charge and most bounden duty, 
praying the living God to give you His grace to 
accomplish your charge to His glory, whose merciful 
hand shall prosper your voyage and preserve you 
from all dangers. In witness whereof I, Sebastian 
Cabota, Governor aforesaid, to these present ordinances 
have subscribed my name and put my seal the day 
and year above written." 

The expedition sailed on the 20th of May, 1553, 
and as it passed Greenwich it was viewed by the 
Court, the King being unable to do so on account 
of sickness. The vessels were parted during a great 
storm at sea, but Chancellor reached the rendezvous 
in Norway in safety. Having waited some days in 
vain for the other ships, he set sail, rounded the North 
Cape, and reached the White Sea. He landed on the 
spot where Archangel now stands ; and having soon 
tranquillized the natives, he was provisioned by them. 
Chancellor safely returned home by the overland 
route to Moscow, where he established a trade 
which is still carried on between that city and 
Eogland. 

Willoughby's expedition, on the contrary, met with 
a tragic fate. His two vessels became frozen up in 
the ice. These were discovered long afterwards, but 
all traces of the crew had disappeared, and the only 
thing known of the gallant but unfortunate adven- 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. Ill 

tnrers is that some of them were alive in Jannary, 
1554. 

While Chancellor and Willonghby were still pnr- 
suing their voyages, Cabot organized yet another 
expedition. In this he was assisted by Sir George 
Barnes (the Lord Mayor), Sheriff Garnett, York, 
Wyndham, and other adventurers. Guinea was its 
destination, and the expedition sailed in August, 1553. 
The King lent two ships, the Primrose and the Lion, 
for this voyage. There does not seem to be a record 
of the fortunes of the expedition. If one existed, 
it may have been lost with other documents and 
maps. 

In the company of which he was Governor, Cabot 
had associated with him as members such celebrated 
men as the Marquis of Winchester, Lord High 
Treasurer ; the Earl of Arundel, Lord Steward ; the 
Earl of Bedford, Lord Privy Seal ; Lord Howard of 
Effingham, Lord High Admiral; the Earl of Pem- 
broke, etc. 

After the accession of Mary, England was embroiled 
in a war with France, and all Cabot's schemes of 
exploration and colonization had to be abandoned. 
He secured, however, through Chancellor a charter 
to trade with Russia. The last voyage which Chan- 
cellor, now grand pilot, was destined to make was 
one in 1556-7, on the occasion of his conveying the 
Russian Ambassador to England. His vessel was 
driven on the rocks at Pitsligo, on the Scottish coast, 
and the noble and intrepid Chancellor lost his life 
in saving that of the ambassador. 

The last attempt to induce Cabot to return to Spain 



112 THE UNITED STATES. 

was made by Charles V. soon after Mary's accession. 
The veteran navigator preferred to remain under 
English colours, and he was rewarded by additional 
emoluments. 

The trade with Russia soon increased greatly. Four 
ships were despatched thither in 1557, one of them 
being the Primrose. The English who went out 
taught the Russians rope-making, and took apprentices 
to learn the duties of agents. Among other trade 
directions which Cabot drew up was one advising the 
underselling all other nations. The whaling trade 
with Spitzbergen had its origin at this period. Great 
impulse was given to commerce in all directions, and 
this was due entirely to the energy and genius of 
Cabot. Among other things, a mission was sent out 
to Persia, which resulted in the opening up of an 
excellent trade with that far-off country. 

Cabot's biographer, Nicholls, thus describes the 
last authentic glimpse we have of the indefatigable 
navigator : 

" Stephen Burroughs, who had been with Chancellor, 
was again despatched to the north, in 1556, in a 
pinnace called the Seathriftj and in his journal he 
gives us a glimpse of the anxious supervision of Cabot, 
and of his unwillingness to quit them until the very 
last moment of their sailing. 

" We catch the genial smile, marvel at the wonder- 
ful unbroken spirit, and note how the wise old man 
gauged and understood the character of those who 
surrounded him, and knew how to leave a lasting 
impression on their minds that there would ever be 
a feeling of warm and loving sympathy cherished 



THE CABOTS AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 113 

for them, tbongli far, far away, by those who were 
compelled to stay at home. 

" On the 27th of April, being Monday, the Eight 
Worshipful Sebastian Caboto came aboard our pin- 
nesse at Gravesend, accompanied with divers gentle- 
men and gentlewomen, who, after that they had viewed 
our pinnesse, and tasted of such cheere as wee could 
make them aboarde, they went on shore, giveing to 
our mariners right liberal rewardes. And the goode 
olde gentleman. Master Caboto, gave to the poore 
most liberall almes, wishing them to pray for the 
good fortune and prosperous successe of the Seathri/t 
our pinnesse. 

"And then, at the sign of the Christopher, he and 
his friends banketted, and made me and them that 
were in the companie great cheere ; and, for very joy 
that he had to see the towardnesse of our intended 
discovery, he enter'd into the dance himself, amongst 
the rest of the younge and lusty company ; which, 
being ended, hee and his friends departed, most gently 
commending us to the governance of Almighty God." 
Philip of Spain came to England in May, 1557. He 
was no friend to Cabot, who had refused his father's 
overtures. Consequently, we are not surprised that 
on the 27th of May, 1557, Cabot was compelled to 
resign his position and pension. Two days later he 
was reinstated ; but one William Worthington was 
associated with him, taking half his pension, and, 
what IS worse, being given the custody of Cabot's 
" maps, charters, and discourses, written with his own 
hand." The fate of these documents, and whether 
they are in the Spanish Archives or not, is not known. 

8 



114 THE UNITED STATES. 

AVhen Hakluyt tried to get sight of this precious 
collection twenty years after Cabot's death, he was met 
with rejijeated and peremptory refusals by Worthington. 

It is strange that neither the date of the birth nor 
the death of so distinguished a man as Sebastian 
Cabot is known, nor even the place where his ashes 
found burial. Richard Eden, his faithful and attached 
friend, saw him die ; and in a work to be found in the 
King's Library of the British Museum he records how 
the ruling passion was strong in death : " As the 
spirit struggles with the clay, he speaks flightily 
about a divine revelation to him of a new and in- 
fallible method of finding the longitude, which he 
could not disclose to any mortal." 

So sailed out into the unseen the spirit of Sebastian 
Cabot, who was practically the creator of the British 
Navy. In addition to that, he was the discoverer of 
a very large portion of both American continents. 
His genius, his discoveries, his multifarious labours, 
and his high and honourable character make up the 
sum of one of Britain's heroes, and one to whom much 
of her commercial greatness is due. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOW AMEKICA EECEIVED ITS NAME. 

IT is one of the most extraordinary incidents in tlie 
history of maritime discovery that the name of 
the American Continent owes its origin either to a 
fraudulent misrepresentation or a very singular mis- 
apprehension. The weight of opinion has generally 
favoured the former hypothesis, 

Amerigo Vespucci, or, to give another form of the 
name, Americo Vespucio, is the navigator round whom 
the controversy has raged, and his partizans have not 
scrupled to affirm that he took precedence both of 
Columbus and of the Cabots in the discovery of the 
mainland of America. As we shall presently see, 
however, the claim is totally unfounded. Vespucci 
came of a wealthy family of merchants, and was born 
at Florence on the 9th of March, 1451. He received 
his education from his uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, 
a Dominican friar, and a friend and colleague of 
Savonarola. Amerigo early engaged in commerce, 
first in Florence and afterwards in SevOle. In the 
latter city he met Columbus, probably as early as the 
year 1493. In 1497 he was engaged in fitting out 
the ships with which Columbus sailed on his third 
voyage, and a year before that he had been engaged 

115 



116 THE UNITED STATES. 

in fitting out a fleet for the Spanish Government. 
These undisputed facts entirely dispose of the allega- 
tion, erroneously made by himself or others, that he 
had made a voyage to America in 1497. 

The fact is that the first expedition in which 
Vespucci took part was that under the command of 
Alonzo de Ojeda, which sailed on the 20th of May, 1499. 
Ojeda was one of those who accompanied Columbus in 
his first voyage, and his patron now was the Bishop of 
Fonseca, the enemy of Columbus, who treacherously 
procured for him the charts which the great navigator 
had sent home, and gave him a licence for his voyage, 
although there was a royal order that none should go 
without permission within fifty leagues of the lands 
Columbus had last discovered. Vespucci claimed to 
have the command of two caravels in Ojeda's fleet. 
The expedition visited the neighbourhood of Cape 
Paria, explored several hundred miles of coast as far 
as Cape de la Veda, and returned in June, 1500. 

In May, 1501, Vespucci entered the service of the 
King of Portugal, and participated in an expedition 
that visited the coast of Brazil. Here again he only 
went where others had preceded him, for in 1500 
three Spanish expeditions bad visited Brazil, under 
the command respectively of Vicente Yanez Pinzon, 
Diego de Lepe, and Rodrigo de Bastidas ; while a 
Portuguese fleet, under Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, had 
accidentally discovered the country and taken pos- 
session of it in the name of Portugal. Still, " the 
expedition of Vespucci was a bold one, and made 
important additions to astronomical science" by its 
leader's " observations of the heavenly bodies of 



HOW AMERICA EECEIVED ITS NAME. 117 

the southern firmament^ especially of the ' Southern 
Cross/ and to the knowledge of geography in his 
exploration of the southern continent and sea of the 
Western Hemisphere. After leaving Cape Verde, he 
was sixty-seven days at sea before he made land again 
at 5° south, off Cape St. Roque, on the 17th of August. 
Thence he sailed down the coast, spending the whole 
winter in its exploration, till in the following April 
he was as far south as the fifty-fourth parallel, farther 
than any navigator had been before. The nights were 
fifteen hours long ; the weather tempestuous and foggy 
and very cold. The last land he saw is supposed to 
be the Island of Georgia, where, finding no harbours, 
and seeing no people along its rugged shores, the little 
fleet turned to escape from these savage seas, where 
perpetual winter and almost perpetual darkness seemed 
to reign. They reached Lisbon again in 1502." 

In May, 1503, Vespucci commanded a caravel in a 
squadron that sailed for the discovery of Malacca. 
But he parted company from the rest, and finally made 
his way to the coast of Brazil, where he discovered 
the Bay of All Saints. Here he remained for two 
months, and then ran two hundred and sixty leagues 
farther south, where he built a fort near Cape Frio ; 
and leaving a colony there, he returned to Lisbon in 
June, 1504. 

Abandoning now the service of Portugal, early in 
1505 he obtained letters of naturalization from King 
Ferdinand of Spain, and on the 22nd of March, 1508, 
was appointed pilot-major of the kingdom. This 
office he held until his death, taking charge of the 
preparation of a general description of coasts and 



118 THE UNITED STATES. 

accounts of new discoveries, and also superintending 
the construction of charts and the examination of 
pilots. Vespucci died at Seville on the 22nd of 
February, 1512. 

With regard to Vespucci's claim to he the discoverer 
of America, it is both important and significant that 
none of the original letters of Amerigo bearing on the 
subject are extant, except in translations, and these 
differ greatly among themselves, and contain incon- 
sistencies of fact and date. It is not even known in 
what language the letters were written. An account 
by Amerigo of his voyage of 1499, said to have been 
written on the 18th of July, 1500, was published by 
Bandini in 1745. A letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo 
Piero de Medici of Florence, a cousin of Lorenzo the 
Magnificent, describing the voyage of 1501, was pub- 
lished in various editions, some in Latin, others in 
German ; and in 1789 a new text, in Italian, was dis- 
covered by Bartolozzi. The first edition of the letter 
to Lorenzo Piero de Medici was published at Augsburg 
in 1504, and round this letter great interest centres. 
" No wonder that, as it was probably the first printed 
narrative of any discovery of the mainland of the new 
continent, it should excite unusual attention. Several 
editions appeared, in the course of the next four years, 
in Latin and Italian, and among them one at Strasbourg 
in 1505 under the editorship of one Mathias Ring- 
mann, a native of Schlestadt, a town in the lower 
department of the Rhine, twenty-five miles from 
Strasbourg. So earnest an admirer of Vespucci was 
this young student, that he appended to the narrative 
of the voyage a letter and some verses of liis own in 



HOW AMERICA EECEIVED ITS NAME. 119 

praise of the navigator, and lie gave to the book the 
title of Americus Vesputius : De Or a Antarctica per 
Regem Portugallia pridem inmnta (Americus Ves- 
pnccins : concerning a Southern Region recently dis- 
covered under the King of Portugal). Here was the 
suggestion of a new southern continent as distinct 
from the northern continent of Asia, to which the dis- 
coveries hitherto mainly north of the Equator were 
supposed to belong. And this supposition of such a 
new quarter of the globe gave rise, two years after- 
ward, to a name, all growing naturally enough out of 
the enthusiasm of this Ringmann for Vespucci, and 
communicated by him to others." 

In 1507 a Gosmograpliice Introductio was published 
at the little College of St. Di6 in Lorraine. This 
college was established and conducted by Walter Lud, 
secretary of the Duke of Lorraine. It enjoyed the 
distinction of having one of the new printing-presses 
then being set up, and Ringmann was appointed to 
the important post of proof-reader, while he also held 
the collegiate professorship of Latin. The work 
above mentioned, the Go&mograpliice Introduction was 
the composition of Martin Waldseemiiller, and it 
was published under his Greco-Latinized name of 
" Hylacomylus." Waldseemiiller was teacher of geo- 
graphy in the college. To his little work was ap- 
pended an account by Amerigo of his voyages, 
purporting to be addressed to Ren6 11, Duke of 
Lorraine. Here it was asserted that four voyages were 
made, the date of the first being fixed in May, 1497. 
If this had been true, Amerigo would have reached 
the mainland a week or two earlier than Cabot, and 



120 THE UNITED STATES. 

about fourteen montlis earlier than Colambns. It was 
also suggested in the book that Amerigo was entitled 
to give his name to the continent he had discovered. 

But the claim was groundless, and considerable 
doubt has been thrown on the whole of Vespucci's 
narrative. Many have charged him with deliberate 
falsification, and most of his apologists have contented 
themselves with defending his character rather than 
the truth of his narrative, ascribing the inconsist- 
encies of the latter to the errors of translators and 
copyists. In his Researches, Santarem says he could 
find no mention at all of Vespucci in the Koyal 
Archives of Portugal ; and it is very important to 
note that his reputed discovery of the mainland was 
not used as evidence by the Spanish Government in 
an action at law in 1512, when it would have been 
clearly in their favour to do so. On the contrary, 
Ojeda distinctly asserted that the mainland was dis- 
covered by Columbus. 

The name of America, however, soon began to be 
used as the designation of the whole of the Western 
Hemisphere ; and it was not until the publication of 
Scboner's Opusculum Geographicum in 1533 that 
doubt began to be thrown upon its propriety. Now 
it is known to be clearly untrue that Vespucci was 
the first discoverer of the Western Continent. But 
it would be useless, we presume, to advertise in the 
daily newspapers that on and after such a date 
America would henceforth be called and known as 
Columbia, as it really ought to be. The name of 
America has taken root, and will no doubt continue 
to be used till the end of time. 



CHAPTER V. 

POETUGUESE, FRENCHj AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 

WITH the advent of the sixteenth century, expe- 
ditions to the Western Hemisphere became 
very frequent, France, Spain, Portugal, and England 
all contributing their quota of adventurers. The lead- 
ing explorers will be dealt with in separate chapters, 
while men like Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of 
Mexico, do not come within the purview of this work. 
Confining ourselves now to the minor Portuguese, 
French, and Spanish explorers, we come first upon the 
name of Gaspar Cortereal, a native of Lisbon. In 
1500, by appointment of Manuel, King of Portugal, he 
left the mouth of the Tagus with two ships, well 
equipped at his own cost, and went as far as the 
regions since known as Canada. He reached 60° N., 
and imposed upon many places purely Portuguese 
names, such as Labrador. After his return from this 
voyage, he again left Lisbon, with two caravels, for the 
Arctic regions in May, 150L Cortereal ranged the 
coast of North America for about seven hundred miles, 
till he was blocked by ice when approaching the 
fiftieth degree. The country by which he passed 
had excellent verdure, and the explorer admired the 
stately forests in which pines, large enough for masts 

121 



122 THE UNITED STATES. 

and yards, promised profitable coramerce. Yet he 
filled his ships with men instead of timber, taking on 
board fifty Indians to be sold as slaves. The name of 
Labrador, which was transferred from the territory 
south of the St. Lawrence to a region farther north, 
is the only permanent survival of Portuguese explora- 
tion in North America. Cortereal never returned from 
his second voyage; and although two rescue expeditions 
were sent out, nothing was discovered as to his fate. 

The French were early in the field as North 
American colonizers. In 1504, seven years only after 
the discovery of the continent, Bretons and Normans 
were fishing in Newfoundland. The former gave their 
name to the Island of Cape Breton. In 1506 a map 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was drawn by John Denys 
of Honfleur, who had explored the gulf. There are 
many records of private French fishing enterprises. 
One Thomas Aubert, a pilot of Dieppe, visited Cape 
Breton Island, and carried some of the natives thence 
to France. But the most remarkable expedition for 
some years was the voyage of Giovanni di Verrazano 
in 1523. Verrazano, though a native of Florence, had 
been trained under Aubert. Originally he went out 
with four vessels, but three were lost, leaving only his 
own ship, the Dauphine. In a letter which he sent to 
King Francis I., it is believed that we get for the first 
time a passing glimpse, by actual description, of much 
of the long stretch of the Atlantic coast of North 
America now within the boundaries of the United 
States. His vessel is supposed to have been the first 
to enter New York Harbour ; and Verrazano is further 
believed to have visited what are now known as 



POKTUGUESE, FBENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 123 

Narragansett Bay and the shores of New England 
and Maine. His fate is unknown, but " the credit 
belongs to him, not only of having first explored with 
some care the Atlantic coast of the United States, but 
of first promulgating the true theory of the size of the 
globe in contradistinction to that of the old cosmo- 
graphers, which Columbus had adopted and believed 
in to the day of his death." 

Leaving for the present the great work of Jacques 
Cartier, we must now briefly sketch the painful but 
romantic story of the celebrated Admiral Coligny's at- 
tempt at colonization in North America. The admiral 
despatched from Havre, in the King's name, in February, 
1562, two ships under the command of Captain John 
Ribault, " to discover and view a certaine long coast 
of the West Indies called La Florida " — a coast which 
really included the whole of the Atlantic side of the 
United States from the Rio Grande to the Canadian 
line. Ribault was a tried commander, and a man of 
faith and truth, brave also and experienced. Besides 
his seamen, he had under him a band of soldiers, and 
a number of gentlemen, whose object was to build up 
the Reformed Protestant Church in the wilderness to 
the glory of God. 

Ribault's expedition safely reached the coast of 
Florida, and entered a river which they called the 
River of May, but which is now known as the St. 
John. Thanks were given to God for their success, 
and a pillar was set up with the arms of France, this 
being the first boundary on the south of the French 
King's dominions in the New World. The land seemed 
fair and fruitful, " and pleasantest of all the world." 



124 THE UNITED STATES. 

It abounded in all kinds of frnits, birds, and fisbes. 
Proceeding northward, on the 30th of May the expedi- 
tion entered the harbour of Port Royal, where a navy 
might ride in safety. Here it was proposed to fonnd 
a colony ; and Ribault, calling his men together, 
delivered a speech to them fall of noble sentiments. 
Those whom Ribault left behind to establish a colony, 
under Albert de la Pierria as leader, erected a fort, 
which was called Charles Fort. It was on a little 
island on the Chenonceau stream, now known as 
Archer's Creek, about six miles from Beaufort, South 
Carolina. 

Improvidence and idleness on the part of the colonists 
led to mutiny and bloodshed. Captain Albert was 
deposed for his severity, and a worthy man named 
Nicholas Barre was chosen as his successor. But 
although peace was secured, the pangs of hunger 
could not be allayed, and the colonists built a vessel, 
on board which they embarked for France. Terrible 
privations were experienced during the voyage, and 
the remnant who were left were taken by an English 
captain, the feeblest being sent to France, and the 
others conveyed as prisoners to England. 

As no news had been received of Ribault in France, 
in April, 1564, Coligny despatched a new expedition 
under Captain Ren6 de Laudonni^re, who had four 
vessels under him. Laudonni^re reached the River 
of May in June, and was received with enthusiastic 
transports by the natives. The captain made a most 
glowing report of the country He built a triangular 
fort, which he named Fort Caroline, on a spot now 
known as St. John's Bluff, on the bank of the St. 



PORTUGUESE, FEENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 125 

John Eiver. The greed for gold and silver, however, 
soon set in amongst the colonists, and disaffection and 
insubordination followed. The mutineers seized the 
vessels, but speedily quarrelled amongst themselves, 
with the result that three of the vessels fell into the 
hands of the Sj^aniards, while the fourth was brought 
back to Fort Caroline, where Laudonni^re punished 
the ringleaders with death. But famine next attacked 
the colony, which was aggravated by conflicts with the 
natives. In August, 1565, an English fleet arrived, 
under Sir John Hawkins, who succoured the colonists. 
They were next engaged in making preparations to 
return to France, when on the 28th of August seven 
ships arrived under the command of Ribault himself. 
Unjust complaints had been made to Coligny against 
Laudonni^re, and the latter was told that he must 
return to France to answer them, Eibault being 
appointed to take command of the colony in his place. 
A Spanish fleet shortly afterwards arrived in the 
River of May, under the command of Pedro Menendez, 
whose mission was to burn and destroy all Lutheran 
Frenchmen whom he might meet with. Menendez was 
a treacherous, bloodthirsty bigot. Against the advice 
of Laudonni^re, Ribault sailed with all the larger 
vessels and most of the efiective men at his command. 
Intending to attack the enemy at the mouth of the 
River of Dolphins ; and he left behind him at Fort 
Caroline only about two hundred and forty persons, 
including the sick, the women, and the children. 
Learning these facts, Menendez marched on Fort 
Caroline, which fell an easy prey, and the poor colonists 
were ruthlessly slaughtered without any consideration 



126 THE UNITED STATES. 

for age or sex. A few persons escaped, including 
Laudonni6re ; and these got on board vessels in com- 
mand of a nephew of Ribault, who sailed away for 
France. 

As the other men on board Ribault's ships had been 
wrecked on Anastasia Island, a little to the southward, 
Menendez proceeded thither ; and although the poor 
creatures appealed to his humanity, he put nearly all 
of them to the sword, as they were of the Eeformed 
religion. Ribault himself, with the remnant of his 
force, next fell into the hands of the butcher ; and they 
also were diabolically murdered, Menendez fiendishly 
reporting to the King of Spain that he judged this 
" to be expedient for the service of God our Lord, and 
of your Majesty." The place of this fearful massacre 
is still called " the bloody river of Matanzas." There 
were still a few French colonists left, and when these 
were captured a few were killed and the majority sent 
to the galleys. 

Menendez now erected a fort at the mouth of the 
River of Dolphins. " It was the first permanent Euro- 
pean settlement within the present boundaries of the 
United States, and called by Menendez ' St. Augustine,' 
because on the festival day of that saint — the 28th of 
August — the Spanish fleet had come in sight of the 
coast of Florida, and run into the mouth of the river." 
The foundation of this Spanish colony marked the end 
of the French colony. 

When the news of the Spanish cruelties reached 
France, great indignation was excited amongst the 
people ; yet the Catholic King and his infamous mother 
Catherine took no steps to avenge the wrong because 



POETUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 127 

the Frenclimen slain were Lutherans. However, a 
few years later, that is, in the spring of 1568, three 
French vessels appeared oiF the mouth of the River of 
May, commanded by one Dominique de Gourgues. 
De Gourgues was a soldier of high repute, who had 
vengeance to work out on his own account against the 
Spaniards, as well as to punish them for the Matanzas 
massacre. His followers eagerly entered into his 
projects, and they were warmly welcomed by the 
Indians. An alliance was formed with the friendly 
chief Satouriona, and a desperate assault was made 
on the fort one morning at daybreak. The Spaniards 
were comj)letely surprised, and in a few moments only 
fifteen of them were left alive. 

De Gourgues now embarked his men, and made for 
the other side of the river, where he furiously attacked 
the bewildered Spaniards in that quarter. The port 
of San Mateo, with a force of nearly three hundred 
men, was next assaulted and taken, almost every 
Spaniard being left for dead. " But the massacre of 
Fort Caroline was not even yet atoned for. The flag 
of France once more floated over its ramparts of earth ; 
the bodies of nearly four hundred Spaniards lay un- 
buried on the shores of the River of May ; but there 
were prisoners still alive. De Gourgues ordered them 
to be brought before him, in the presence of his own 
men and his Indian allies. He was there, he told 
them, to avenge acts which were as heinous an insult 
to France as they were atrocious crimes against 
humanity ; although such deeds could not be punished 
as they deserved, the perpetrators should, at least, be 
made to suffer all the retaliation that could be inflicted 



128 THE UNITED STATES. 

by an honourable enemy. Near by were still standing 
tbe trees on which Menendez had hanged his prisoners, 
beneath the inscription : ' I do this not as to French- 
men, but as to Lutherans.' To the same trees the 
French cai)tain ordered the Spaniards to be led for 
execution ; and over their heads were the words, 
burned into a plank with a hot iron : ' I do not this 
as unto Spaniards, nor as unto Maranes ; but as unto 
traitors, robbers, and murderers.' " 

As De Gourgues's whole force numbered less than 
three hundred men, he was not sufficiently strong to 
attack St. Augustine, so he left Florida and returned 
home. The King of Spain sent a small fleet to capture 
him off the French coast ; but he eluded their pursuit, 
and lived in retirement until 1579. 

Among the early French voyagers to the coast of 
Maine was Andr6 Th(5vet, the traveller and cosmo- 
grapher, who had been a member of Villegagnon's 
Huguenot colony in South America. In 1536 he 
visited the Grand River (Penobscot), and entered into 
traffic with the natives, who were most friendly. The 
Abuakis, who, with the Micmacs, were the aboriginal 
inhabitants of Maine, inhabited the territory from the 
Penobscot, north of Canada, and through New Hamp- 
shire, and dwelt in five permanent villages. They were 
brave, hospitable, and faithful people ; and coming 
under the influence of the French missionaries, they 
soon became attached to the French, who kept them 
strongly hostile to the English. 

Under the title of Nouvelle France, the French 
proclaimed their authority over the whole of the 
region which included Maine, though for many years 



PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 129 

they did little towards colonizing it. In 1598 the 
Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany, secured 
an ample commission from Henry IV., and made a 
futile attempt at a settlement. He scoured the French 
prisons, and took out their inmates to the desolate 
Isle of Sable ; but after suffering great hardships, a 
small remnant were glad to return to France, when 
they received a pardon. 

De Chauvin, an experienced sea officer, next obtained 
a commission similar to that granted to De la Roche. 
He had associated with him in the enterprise Font- 
grave, a merchant of St. Malo. Chauvin made two 
profitable voyages, and was preparing for a third when 
his sudden death intervened. 

But the work of French colonization was destined 
to be effected by Samuel Champlain, who has not 
unjustly been styled "the Father of New France." 
He was a native of Brouage, and was an able marine 
officer and a man of science. In 1603 he was selected 
to command an expedition manned by a company 
of merchants of Rouen, which had been founded by 
the Governor of Dieppe. Champlain is described as 
by his natural disposition " delighting marvellously in 
these enterprises." The American historian George 
Bancroft observes that Champlain had for a season, 
in the last year of the sixteenth century, " engaged 
in the service of Spain, that he might make a 
voyage to regions into which no Frenchman could 
otherwise have entered. He was in Porto Rico and 
St. Domingo and Cuba, visited the city of Mexico, 
and showed the benefits of joining the two oceans 
by a canal to Panama. He now became the father 

9 



130 THE UNITED STATES. 

of New France. He possessed a clear and penetrat- 
ing nnderstanding with a spirit of cautions inquiry, 
untiring perseverance with great mobility, indefatig- 
able activity with fearless courage. The account 
of his first expedition to Canada gives proof of sound 
judgment, accurate observation, and historical fidelity. 
It is full of details on the manners of the savage 
tribes, not less than the geography of the country ; 
and Quebec was already selected as the appropriate 
site for a fort. 

"In November, 1603, just after Champlain had re- 
turned to France, an exclusive patent was i&sued to 
a Calvinist, the able, patriotic, and honest De Monts. 
The sovereignty of Acadia and its confines, from the 
fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of latitude, that 
is, from Philadelphia to beyond Montreal ; a still 
wider monopoly of the fur trade ; the exclusive 
control of the soil, government, and trade ; freedom 
of religion for Huguenot emigrants, — these were the 
privileges which his charter conceded. 

" In March, 1604, two ships left the shores of France 
not to return till a permanent settlement should be 
made in America. The summer glided away while 
the emigrants trafficked with the natives and explored 
the coasts. The harbour called Annapolis, after its 
conquest, by Queen Anne, an excellent harbour, though 
difficult of access, possessing a small but navigable 
river, which abounded in fish and is bordered by 
beautiful meadows, so pleased Pontrincourt, a leader 
in the enterprise, that he sued for a grant of it from 
De Monts, and, naming it Port Royal, determined to 
reside there with his family. The company of De Monts 



POETUGUESE, FBENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 131 

made their first attempt at a settlement on tlie Island 
of St. Croix, at the mouth of the river of the same name. 
Yet the island was so ill-snited to their purposes that, 
in the spring of 1605, they removed to Port Royal. 

" For an agricultural colony a milder climate was 
more desirable. In view of a settlement at the south, 
De Monts in the same year explored and claimed for 
France the rivers, especially the Merrimac, the coasts, 
and the bays of New England, as far at least as Cape 
Cod. The numbers and hostility of the savages led 
him to delay a removal, since his colonists were so 
few. Yet the purpose remained. Thrice, in the 
spring of 1606, did Dupont, his lieutenant, attempt 
to complete the discovery. Twice he was driven back 
by adverse winds, and at the third attempt his vessel 
was wrecked. Pontrincourt, who had visited France 
and returned with supplies, himself renewed the design; 
but meeting with disasters among the shoals of Cape 
Cod, he too returned to Port Royal." 

Henry IV. confirmed the possessions of Pontrincourt 
in 1607 ; Marie de Medici contributed to support the 
missions which the Marquise de Guercheville pro- 
tected ; in 1610 the Jesuits were granted an impost 
on the fisheries and fur trade ; and in the following 
year a number of Jesuit priests arrived to begin the 
work of converting the natives. In a very short time 
the tribes between the Penobscot and the Kennebec 
became the firm allies of France. A French colony 
was founded in 1613, under the auspices of De 
Guercheville and Marie de Medici, when De Saussaye 
raised the entrenchments of St. Sauveur on the eastern 
shore of Mount Desert Isle. The Indians now gathered 



132 THE UNITED STATES. 

round the Christian cross as raised by the Jesuits, and 
they looked upon the Jesuit leader Father Biart as a 
messenger from heaven. But while this was taking 
place, the monopoly of De Monts had been revoked 
through the influence of French merchants. Cham- 
plain, who was filled with the ambition of founding a 
state, succeeded in forming a company of merchants 
of Dieppe and St. Malo, and under their auspices 
he raised the French flag over Quebec on the 3rd 
of July, 1608. 

Champlain, with a mixed party consisting of Hurons 
and Algonkins, and two Europeans, undertook, in 1607, 
an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five Nations, 
in the north of New York. He explored the lake 
which now bears his name, and fought a successful 
battle near Ticonderoga. After the death of Henry IV., 
the Prince of Cond6 became Viceroy of New France, 
and through him the merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, 
and La Rochelle obtained a colonial patent from the 
King in 1615. Champlain, who was then in France, 
again went out to the New World, and unsuccessfully 
invaded the territory of the Iroquois. Wounded and 
dispirited, he wandered about the forests until he 
reached a village of Algonkins, near Lake Nipissing. 

In 1620 Champlain carried out the wishes of the 
new viceroy, Montmorenci, by beginning the con- 
struction of the strong Castle of St. Louis. It was 
completed in 1624, on a commanding elevation, and 
it long formed the place of council against the 
Iroquois and against New England. Difficulties arose 
between the Jesuits and the Calvinists in the French 
settlements ; but Champlain finally established the 



POKTUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 133 

aathority of the Frencli on the banks of the St. 
Lawrence. This enterprising navigator died at Quebec 
on Christmas Day, 1635. 

With regard to the Spanish explorations, they were 
of a stirring and romantic character. First in order 
come those of Yasco Nniiez de Balboa, who dis- 
covered the Pacific Ocean in September, 1513 ; but 
as his exploits do not come within our scope, we 
pass on to the discoverer of Florida, Juan Ponce de 
Leon. This Ponce de Leon was a fellow-voyager 
of Columbus in his second expedition. For a time 
he was governor of Porto Rico. When removed from 
this post, although he was getting into years, he 
resolved on an expedition to the north. Accordingly, 
on the 3rd of March, 1513, he sailed from Porto Rico 
with three vessels, fitted out at his own expense. He 
cruised among the Bahamas, and on the 27th of 
March anchored off the mainland near the point now 
called Fernandina. He took possession of the land in 
the name of Spain ; and as the day was Easter Sunday 
— called by the Spaniards Pascua de Flores — he named 
the newly discovered territory Florida. The land, 
moreover, was brilliant with flowers. Ponce doubled 
Cajje Florida ; and in addition to giving Si)aiu a new 
province, he opened up for Spanish commerce a new 
channel through the Gulf of Florida. The King of 
Spain ordered him to colonize the new land, and 
appointed him its governor ; and Ponce had thus the 
distinction of being the first governor of territory 
within the limits of the present United States. After 
being absent in Europe for some years. Ponce de Leon 
returned to Florida in 1.521. He was engaged in 



134 THE UNITED STATES. 

selecting a site for a new colony, when the Indians 
fell furiously upon the Spaniards, and Ponce, who was 
mortally wounded by an arrow, returned to Cuba to 
die. 

Between Ponce de Leon's discovery of Florida and 
his death other travellers visited the coast. In 1516 
Diego Miruelo, a sea captain, landed and traded with 
the natives ; in 1517 Hernandez de Cordova did the 
like, but was mortally wounded ; in 1518 his pilot 
conducted another squadron to the same shores ; and 
in 1519 Francisco de Garay, a comj^anion of Columbus, 
and now governor of Jamaica, landed on the shore, 
but was attacked by the Indians and lost most of his 
men. He returned the next year, and he was the 
first thorough explorer of the gulf coast of the United 
States. He found that Florida was not an island, as 
was supposed ; and he was believed also to have made 
the first discovery of the Mississippi, which appears in 
the earliest charts as the Rio del Espiritu Santo, or 
River of the Holy Ghost. 

The next important discoverer was Lucas Vasquez 
de Ay lion, who in 1520 explored the coasts of South 
Carolina, which was then called Chicora. The name 
of the Jordan was given to the Combahee River, and 
that of St. Helena, given to a cape, now belongs 
to the sound. Vasquez treacherously kidnapped a 
number of Indians, whom he intended to sell as slaves 
for the gold-mines and plantations of the islands. 
But of his two vessels, one foundered at sea and all 
on board perished, and only a few of the Indians 
remaining on the other ship lived to reach Hispaniola. 
The Emperor Charles V. rewarded Vasquez, and 



POETUGUESE, FEENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 135 

appointed him to the conquest of Chicora. In 1525 
Vasquez set forth again with a formidable expedition. 
He appears to have explored the territory which is 
now represented by the States of Georgia, the Caro- 
linas, Virginia, and Maryland ; but sickness and the 
Indians decimated his force, so that out of six hundred 
soldiers and sailors who formed the expedition not 
more than one hundred and fifty returned to His- 
paniola. Vasquez himself died from sickness. 

Stephen Gomez, an able Portuguese seaman in the 
service of Spain, sailed from Corunna with a single 
vessel only, in February, 1525, to find a passage to 
Cathay, which he believed to lie between Florida 
and the Baccalaos, or Newfoundland. He voyaged 
from north to south on the American coast, and 
discovered the Hudson, which he named the St. 
Antony. It would seem that he got to about the 
latitude of New York, but no positive record remains 
of his voyage. He returned to Spain, however, with 
a freight of furs and Indians. 

A story of the deepest interest is that relating to 
the formidable but disastrous expedition of Pamphilo 
de Narvaez, who obtained from Charles V. the contract 
to explore and reduce all the territory from the Atlantic 
to the River Palmas. Narvaez was a wealthy man, 
who risked all his treasure upon his conquests. He 
sailed from Spain in 1527 with five ships and about 
five hundred men. Many Spaniards of noble birth 
were in his train, and one, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de 
Vaca, will have a permanent place in the records of 
discovery as treasurer and historian of the expedition. 
During the winter of 1527-8 the expedition, amidst 



136 THE UNITED STATES. 

storms and losses, passed from port to port on 
the southern side of Cuba. In the spring Cape San 
Antonio was doubled ; but a strong south wind setting 
in, the fleet was driven upon the American coast. On 
the 14th of April Narvaez anchored in or near the 
outlet of the Bay of the Cross, now Tampa Bay. 
This was the day before Good Friday, and two days 
afterwards the governor landed, and in the name of 
Spain took possession of Florida. Against the advice 
of Cabeza de Vaca, Narvaez, with three hundred men, 
struck into the interior of the country, being allured 
by the prospect of gold. Nature everywhere they 
found to be most beautiful, and the trees, birds, deer, 
etc., elicited admiration ; but they discovered no gold. 

The further fate of the expedition is told in detail 
by many historians ; but as the narrative by Mr. 
Bancroft is perhaps the most graphic, we quote from 
it the following passage : " When on rafts and by 
swimming they had painfully crossed the strong 
current of the Withlochoochee, they were so worn 
away by famine as to give infinite thanks to God for 
lighting upon a field of unripe maize. Just after the 
middle of June, they encountered the Swanee, whose 
wide, deep, and rapid stream delayed them till they 
could build a large canoe. Wading through swamps, 
made more terrible by immense trunks of fallen trees, 
that lay rotting in the water, and sheltered the few but 
skilful native archers, on the day after Saint John's 
they came in sight of Appalachee, where they had pic- 
tured to themselves a populous town and food and trea- 
sure, and found only a hamlet of forty wretched cabins. 

" Here they remained for five-and-twenty days, scour- 



POETUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 137 

ing the conntry round in quest of silver and gold, 
till, perishing with hunger, and weakened by fierce 
attacks, they abandoned all hope but of an escape 
from a region so remote and malign. Amidst in- 
creasing dangers, they went onward through deep 
lagoons and the ruinous forest in search of the sea, 
till they came upon a bay, which they called Baia 
de Caballos, and which now forms the harbour of 
St. Mark's. No trace could be found of their ships. 
Sustaining life, therefore, by the flesh of their horses, 
and by six or seven hundred bushels of maize, plun- 
dered from the Indians, they beat their stirrups, spurs, 
crossbows, and other implements of iron into saws, 
axes, and nails ; and in sixteen days finished five 
boats, each of twenty-two cubits, or more than thirty 
feet in length, 

" In calking their frail crafts, films of the palmetto 
served for oakum, and they payed the seams with 
pitch from the nearest pines. For rigging, they 
twisted ropes out of horsehair and the fibrous bark 
of the palmetto ; their shirts were pieced together 
for sails, and oars were shaped out of savins ; skins 
flayed from horses served for water-bottles ; it was 
difiicult in the deep sand to find large stones for 
anchors and ballast. Thus equipped, on the 22nd 
of September about two hundred and fifty men — all 
of the original party of five hundred whom famine, 
autumnal fevers, fatigue, and the arrows of the savage 
bowmen had spared — embarked for the River Palmas. 

" Former navigators had traced the outline of the 
coast, but among the voyagers there was not a single 
expert mariner. One shallop was commanded by 



138 THE UNITED STATES. 

Alonzo de Castillo and Andres Dorantes, another by 
Cabeza de Vaca. The gunwales of the crowded vessels 
rose but a hand-breadth above the water, till, after 
creeping for seven days through shallow sounds, 
Cabeza seized five canoes of the natives, out of which 
the Sx^aniards made guard-boards for their five boats. 
During thirty days more they kept on their way, 
sufi'eriug from hunger and thirst, imperilled by a storm, 
now closely following the shore, now avoiding savage 
enemies by venturing out to sea. On the 30th of 
October, at the hour of vespers, Cabeza de Vaca, 
who happened to lead the van, discovered one of the 
mouths of the river now known as the Mississippi, 
and the little fleet was snugly moored among islands 
at a league from the stream, which brought down such 
a flood that even at that distance the water was sweet. 
They would have entered the ' very great river ' in 
search of fuel to parch their corn, but were baflled by 
the force of the current and a rising north wind. 

" A mile and a half from land they sounded, and 
with a line of thirty fathoms could find no bottom. 
In the night following a second day's fruitless struggle 
to go up the stream, the boats were separated ; but 
the next afternoon Cabeza, overtaking and passing 
Narvaez, who chose to hug the land, struck boldly 
out to sea in the wake of Castillo, whom he descried 
ahead. They had no longer an adverse current, and 
in that region the prevailing wind is from the east. 
For four days the half-famished adventurers kept 
prosperously towards the west, borne along by their 
rude sails and their labour at the oar. All the 5th 
of November an easterly storm drove them forward ; 



POETUGUESE, FUENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOKATIONS. 139 

and, on the morning of tlie Cth, the boat of Cabeza 
was thrown by the surf on the sands of an island, 
which he called the Isle of Malhado — that is, of mis- 
fortune. Except as to its length, his description 
applies to Galveston ; his men believed themselves 
not far from the Panuco. The Indians of the place 
expressed sympathy for their shipwreck by howls, 
and gave them food and shelter. Castillo was cast 
away a little farther to the east ; but he and his 
company were saved alive. Of the other boats, an 
uncertain story reached Cabeza : that one foundered 
in the gulf; that the crews of the two others gained 
the shore; that Narvaez was afterwards driven out 
to sea ; that the stranded men began wandering 
towards the west ; and that all of them but one 
perished from hunger. 

" Those who were with Cabeza and Castillo gradually 
wasted away from cold and want and despair ; but 
Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Castillo, and Estevanico, 
a blackamoor from Barbary, bore up against every 
ill, and, though scattered among various tribes, took 
thought for each other's welfare. The brave Cabeza 
de Vaca, as self-possessed a hero as ever graced a 
fiction, fruitful in resources, and never wasting time 
in complaints of fate or fortune, studied the habits 
and the languages of the Indians, accustomed himself 
to their modes of life, peddled little articles of com- 
merce from tribe to tribe in the interior and along 
the coast for forty or fifty leagues, and won fame in 
the wilderness as a medicine man of wonderful gifts. 
In September, 1534, after nearly six years' captivity, 
the great forerunner among the path-finders across 



140 THE UNITED STATES. 

the continent inspired the three others with his own 
marvellous fortitude, and, naked and ignorant of the 
way, without so much as a single bit of iron, they 
planned their escape. Cabeza has left an artless 
account of his recollections of the journey ; but his 
memory sometimes called up incidents out of their 
place, so that his narrative is confused. He pointed 
his course far inland, partly because the nations away 
from the sea were more numerous and more mild, 
partly that, if he should again come among Chris- 
tians, he might describe the land and its inhabitants. 
Continuing his pilgrimage through more than twenty 
months, sheltered from cold, first by deer-skins, then 
by buffalo robes, he and his companions passed through 
Texas as far north as the Canadian River ; then, along 
Indian paths, crossed the water-shed to the valley 
of the Rio Grande del Norte ; and borne up by cheer- 
ful courage against hunger, want of water on the 
plains, cold and wearisome, perils from beasts and 
perils from red men, the voyagers went from town to 
town in New Mexico, westward and still to the west, 
till in May, 1536, they drew near the Pacific Ocean 
at the village of San Miguel, in Sonora. From that 
place they were escorted by Spanish soldiers to 
Compostella ; and all the way to the city of Mexico 
they were entertained as public guests." 

After his return to Spain in 1537, Cabeza de Vaca 
published an account of his expedition. He was sub- 
sequently appointed administrator of La Plata, but 
was shipwrecked in going out on the coast of Paraguay, 
and became the first explorer of that country. In 
1544 he was taken to Spain, and on certain charges 



POETUGUESE, FEENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 141 

affecting his administration was banished to Africa. 
Recalled by the King in 1552, he was pardoned and 
made judge of the Supreme Court of Seville, dying 
seven years later. 

The news originally brought by Cabeza de Vaca 
of the existence of half-civilized tribes far to the 
north led to expeditions in that region. The first was 
sent out under Marco de Niza in 1539. On its return 
a more important expedition was fitted out under 
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, governor of New 
Galicia. It departed from Culiacan, on the Pacific 
coast, in April, 1540. Coronado passed up the entire 
length of what is now the State of Sonora to the River 
Gila. Crossing this, he penetrated the country beyond 
to the Little Colorado, and visited the famed cities of 
Cibola mentioned by De Vaca and De Niza. He states 
that he found seven cities in the kingdom ; but the 
country was too cold for cotton, although the people 
wore mantles of it, and cotton yarn was found in their 
houses. He also found maize, guinea-cocks, peas, and 
dressed skins. From Cibola, Coronado travelled east- 
ward, visiting several towns, similar to the existing 
villages of the Pueblo Indians, till he reached the Rio 
Grande ; and from there journeyed three hundred 
leagues to Quivira, the ruins of which are well known, 
being near lat. 34° N., about one hundred and seventy 
miles from El Paso. There he found a temperate 
climate, with good water and an abundance of fruit. 
The people were clothed in skins. On his way back 
in March, 1542, Coronado fell from his horse at Tiguex, 
near the Rio Grande, and is said to have become 
insane. Mendoza, the viceroy, desired a colony to be 



142 THE UNITED STATES. 

founded in the regions visited ; but tlie commander of 
the expedition did not wish to leave any of his party in 
so poor a country and at so great a distance from suc- 
cour. It appears that the narrative of this expedition 
furnishes the first authentic account of the buffalo, or 
American bison, and the great prairies and plains of New 
Mexico. Drawings of the cities and houses, built by 
the Indians, were sent to Spain with Coronado's report. 
An expedition under Don Tristan de Luna, a scion 
of a noble family in Aragon, sailed from Vera Cruz 
on the 14th of August, 1559, for Florida. It was a 
large and imposing fleet, for Tristan had with him an 
army of fifteen hundred men, besides many friars bent 
on Indian proselytizing, and a number of women and 
children, the families of the soldiers who were to 
colonize the new dominion. The expedition arrived 
safely at a good harbour, which Tristan named the 
Santa Maria, now known as Pensacola Bay. Within 
a few days, however, a great storm arose, and all the 
ships were driven on shore and destroyed. The leader 
sent out a detachment of soldiers to explore the 
country. After a march of forty days, they came upon 
an Indian town, and found provisions abundant. The 
sergeant-major sent back a party of sixteen to De 
Luna, who, with his train of one thousand men, women, 
and children, set out for the Indian town, which was 
safely reached. But the provisions which at first 
seemed so abundant were soon exhausted, and De Luna 
sent out a second search party. As his people began 
to die of hunger, however, he led them back by a 
weary and painful march to Santa Maria. De Luna 
despatched from the port two small vessels to the 



POETUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 143 

viceroy, asking for sncconr, which fortunately arrived, 
and the colonists were borne away. The commander 
was recalled, and returned to Mexico in 1561, chagrined 
at the failure of the most promising attempt ever 
made by the Spaniards for the colonization of Florida. 
Pedro Menendez, who had already founded St. 
Augustine, likewise made an attempt in 1566 to estab- 
lish a post on the shores of the Bay of St. Mary, or 
Chesapeake Bay, or upon one of its tributary rivers. 
The expedition was unsuccessful ; but four years later 
Menendez persuaded the General of the Order of the 
Jesuits to found a missionary station at Axacan, as a 
portion of Virginia was called. A band of priests, led 
by an Indian convert named Don Luis, afterwards 
landed on the banks of the Potomac — then called the 
Espiritu Santo — and travelled on foot to the Rappa- 
hannock, near which river they put up a chapel. But 
Don Luis soon forgot his Christianity, and returned 
to his savage Indian instincts, and the priests were 
massacred. Menendez returned from Spain, and ex- 
acted vengeance for the deed. For more than thirty 
years longer, nevertheless, St. Augustine remained 
the only European colony within the present limits 
of the United States. In 1586 Sir Francis Drake, on 
entering the River of Dolphins, found the Spanish 
settlement under the command of Pedro Menendez, a 
nephew of the founder, who had also continued his 
relative's explorations on the coast of Florida. To 
Spain thus belongs the honour of discovering Florida 
and the Mississippi ; but the path of the explorers was 
unfortunately too often stained by treachery, cruelty, 
and bloodshed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

JACQUES CAKTIEE AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 

AMONG the early pioneers of North America, 
Jacqnes Cartier is entitled to a very prominent 
place. This distingnished explorer -was born in the 
French town of St. Malo in December, 1494. He led 
a seafaring life, and made several fishing voyages to 
the great banks of Labrador, until he entered upon 
his first real voyage of discovery in 1534. It was 
Philip Chabot, Admiral of France, who initiated the 
expedition. He had urged the King to establish a 
colony somewhere in the north-west, and the enter- 
prise was entrusted to Cartier, who already enjoyed 
high repute as an experienced mariner. 

Cartier, who had only two ships of sixty tons each, 
with a total of one hundred and twenty-two men, sailed 
from St. Malo in April, 1.534. Steering for Newfound- 
land, he passed through the Straits of Belle Isle into 
the Gulf of Chaleurs, and planted a cross at Gasp6, 
decorated with the arms of France, and bearing the 
inscription, Vive le Roi de France! The native Indians, 
whom he described as being in a lamentable condition, 
objected through their chief to this proceeding; but 
Cartier deceived them by saying that it " was only set 

144 



JACQUES CARTIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 145 

up to be as a light and leader whicli ways to enter 
into the port." He further conciliated them by trifling 
presents, and persuaded the chief to allow him to take 
his two sons back to France with him. During this 
voyage Cartier discovered the Great River of Canada, 
and ascended its channel until he could perceive land 
on either side. When he returned home, his native 
city and France were filled with the fame of his 
discoveries. 

The consequence was that, in the ensuing year, a 
new expedition was decided upon, the King himself 
providing three well-furnished vessels, the largest, how- 
ever, being of only one hundred and twenty tons. It 
solemnly set forth in May, 1535, Cartier's object being, 
not only to find the way to Cathay, but to plant French 
colonies in new lands, where whole nations were to be 
converted to the Holy Catholic Faith. Steering west- 
ward along the coast of Labrador, Cartier entered a 
small bay opposite the Island of Anticosti, which he 
called the Bay of St. Lawrence. He proceeded 
cautiously up the river, past the Saguenay and Cape 
Tourmente, and anchored off a wooded and vine-clad 
island. On account of the rich clusters of grapes he 
called this island Bacchus (afterwards known as the 
Island of Orleans) ; and after friendly converse with 
the Indians, notably with Dounacona, their chief, he 
came upon the majestic site of the modern Quebec, 
then called Stadacone. He next went in a boat up the 
St. Croix Hiver (now the St. Charles) ; and understand- 
ing that many days' journey up the River Hochelaga 
(for by that name the Indians called the St. Lawrence) 
there was a large town of the same name, he resolved 

10 



146 THE UNITED STATES. 

to proceed thither. The Indians were averse to his 
going, and tried to frighten him by sending three of 
their number, disguised as devils, with blackened faces 
and " horns on their heads more than a yard long." 
But Cartier only ridiculed the devils, and declared the 
Indian god Cudruaigny to be " but a fool and a 
noddie." Christ would defend from the cold all who 
believed in Him ; and though he (the French captain) 
had not himself talked with Jesus upon this subject, 
his priests had, and received from Him a promise of 
fair weather. The Indians felt themselves defeated, 
and Cartier proceeded on his way. On the 2nd of 
October, 1535, his vessels lay in the stream off 
Hochelaga, the modern Montreal. 

The stirring scene which followed the arrival of 
Cartier and his companions is thus described by one 
historian: "When they landed below the Rapids of 
St. Mary, a thousand Indians, men, women, and 
children, came down to the strand to welcome them. 
With great pomp and circumstance, Cartier, 'very 
gorgeously attired,' marched with his companions to 
the royal residence. It was in a village of about fifty 
huts, surrounded with a triple row of palisades, in the 
midst of wide fields where the brown dried leaves of 
the Indian corn waved and rustled in the autumn 
winds. On this spot now stands Montreal, and a hill 
near by which Cartier called Mont Royal gave a name 
to the future city. 

"In the centre of Hochelaga was a public square, 
where all the people gathered. The women and 
the maidens came with their arms full of children, 
begging that they might even so much as be 



JACQUES CARTIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 147 

touclied by these wonderfal white men from some 
far-ofif country. The ' lord and king,' Agoiihanna, 
a man of fifty years, helpless from palsy, was brought 
in by his attendants stretched upon a deer-skin. 
Upon his head, instead of a crown, he wore ' a certain 
thing made of the skinnes of hedgehogs like a red 
wreath,' but otherwise his apparel did not distinguish 
him from his subjects. He prayed that relief might 
be given him from the disease with which he was 
afflicted. Cartier with his own hands rubbed the 
shrunken limbs of the royal sufferer, who bestowed 
upon him in return his crown of coloured porcupine 
quills. It seemed to these poor heathen ' that God 
was descended and come downe from heaven to heale 
them ' ; and the halt, the lame, the blind, the impotent 
from age — so old, some of them, ' that the hair of 
their eyelids came downe and covered their cheekes' — 
were brought forward to be healed. The best the 
good captain could do was to pray ; he read the first 
chapter of the Gospel of St. John and the passion 
of Christ from his service-book, and besought the 
heavenly Father that He would have mercy upon 
these benighted savages, and bring them to a know- 
ledge of His holy Word. The Indians were ' marvel- 
lously attentive,' looking to heaven as the Christians 
did, and imitating all the gestures of devotion; but 
they better understood, and were overwhelmed with 
joy, when, the prayers being finished, the distribution 
of hatchets, knives, beads, rings, brooches of tin, and 
other trifles was begun. 

" Cartier and his companions soon returned to their 
winter quarters at the mouth of the St. Charles, 



148 THE UNITED STATES. 

where those they had left behind had meanwhile 
built a rough fort. The river within a few weeks 
was covered with solid ice, and their ships were 
buried in four feet of snow. With the increasing 
cold, one of those pestilences so common among 
the Indians broke out; and whether it was con- 
tagious, or whether it was superinduced by ex- 
posure to the severity of the climate, it soon attacked 
the French. Twenty-four of the company died, and 
the rest were so enfeebled that only three were 
capable of any exertion. To the fear of death from 
sickness was added suspicion of the Indians, who, 
they were afraid, would take advantage of the weak- 
ness of the strangers and exterminate those whom 
the pestilence spared. The natives were ordered to 
keep away from the fort and the ships under pretence 
of precaution against infection ; and when any of them 
approached, Cartier ordered his sick men to beat with 
hammers and sticks against the side of their berths 
that the noise might be mistaken for sounds of 
busy industry. But where they looked for danger 
came succour. From the Indians they learned that 
a decoction of the leaves and bark of a certain tree 
was a specific for that malady under which they were 
fast perishing. The squaws brought branches of 
the tree, and taught them how to prepare and use 
this sovereign medicine, which in a few days, not 
only did all that was promised for it, but also cured 
the sick of some old chronic difficulties. 

" Their suspicions of the Indians, nevertheless, con- 
tinued. When Donnacona had gone on a hunting 
expedition, the French had feared it was to gather a 



JACQUES CAETIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 149 

force sufficient for an attack upon tlie fort and sliips. 
A certain shyness the Indians showed on their return, 
and an unwillingness to part, except at a high price, 
with provision they needed for their own support, con- 
firmed the apprehensions. Suspicion on the one side 
undoubtedly begot it on the other ; but that the 
natives had the most ground for it was shown in the 
end. When Cartier, in the spring, was ready to sail, 
he enticed Donnacona, with nine others, on board his 
ships, seized and confined them, and, heedless of the 
cries and entreaties of their countrymen, carried them 
to France. In July, 1 536, the fleet arrived at St. Malo ; 
and when, fonr years later, another expedition returned 
to Canada, Donnacona and his companions, excepting 
one little girl, were all dead. They had been baptized 
and received into the bosom of the Church, however, 
before they died — compensation enough, it was thought, 
for enforced loss of liberty, country, and friends." 

Cartier made such a report to King Francis of the 
natural wealth of Canada, that in 1540 Jean Francois 
de la Roque, Lord de Roberval of Picardy, was made 
viceroy and lieutenant-governor in Canada, Hochelaga, 
Saguenay, Newfoundland, and all the other French- 
American territories. Cartier was appointed his 
captain-general, and went out before De Roberval, 
leaving St. Malo on the 23rd of May, 1541. He had 
five vessels with him. When he reached Stadacone, 
Cartier announced the death of Donnacona, and spread 
the false report that the other chiefs had married in 
France and dwelt in great afiluence. 

De Roberval's expedition was, says the historian 
already quoted, barren of any permanent results, like 



150 THE UNITED STATES. 

those preceding it. " A new fort was begun a few miles 
above the site of the old one, at the mouth of the 
St. Croix Eiver ; some little land was sowed ; some- 
thing which they took to be gold was gathered ; 
something else, probably crystals of quartz, they 
supposed were diamonds — for they were so 'faire, 
polished, and excellently cut,' that in the sunlight 
they * glister as it were sparkles of fire.' Two ships 
were sent home in the autumn with tidings of good 
progress. It was determined, nevertheless, to abandon 
the adventure. The Indians soon became troublesome, 
for probably they were not in the least imposed upon 
by the story of Jacques Cartier, that their kidnapped 
countrymen — except Donnacona, who, it was acknow- 
ledged, was dead — were all married in France, and 
living there as ' lords.' And the next summer 
Roberval, on his way out with an addition to the 
colony of two hundred men and women, met Cartier 
in the harbour of St. John, Newfoundland, with his 
three remaining vessels bound homeward. Roberval 
indignantly ordered him to return to the St. Lawrence, 
In the morning his lieutenant was far out to sea on 
his way to France, having quietly slipped off in the 
darkness of the night. Perhaps it was not fear of 
the Indians, nor the hopelessness of a longer struggle 
with the difficulties and hardships of settling a new 
country, that alone influenced Cartier and his com- 
panions. For, says the old narrative, they were moved, 
as it seemeth, with ambition, because they would have 
all the glory of the discovery of those parts themselves. 
Roberval continued his voyage, weakened but not 
dismaj^ed by the desertion of his lieutenant. Of the 



JACQUES CAETIER AND FEEDINAND DE SOTO. 151 

colony he planted little is known except its failure, 
after at least one winter's experience of the hardships 
of the wilderness. According to one account, Cartier 
was sent to bring the survivors home. At any rate 
they returned. Roberval, it is said, undertook another 
expedition with a brother in 1549, which was lost at 
sea ; but it is also asserted that this could not be, as 
he was killed in Paris. Cartier died about 1555." 

Cartier called the St. Lawrence " the River of 
Hochelaga," or " the Great River of Canada," and 
limited the designation of " Canada " to a stretch of 
country from the Isle des Coudres to a point above 
Quebec. He said that the Indians called the country 
above Quebec " Hochelaga," and that below the city 
" Saguenay." " Canada," according to him, was an 
Indian word, signifying a town ; and in this Indian 
origin of the word he was sustained by other early 
French authorities, one of whom, however, rendered it 
terre^ that is, land, while another called it an Indian 
proper name of unknown meaning. 

One of the most ambitious of all the North American 
explorers was Ferdinand de Soto, a Spaniard of Xeres. 
He had distinguished himself under Pizarro, sharing in 
the wealth thus acquired, and, returning to Spain, was 
desirous of rivalling the exploits of Cortes and Pizarro 
in a new field. Consequently, he applied to Charles V. 
for permission to conquer Florida at his own cost. 
The Emperor, familiar with his past renown, conferred 
upon him the government of Cuba, with absolute power 
over the whole of the region to which the name of 
Florida was given. 

Upon this, noble and wealthy Spaniards flocked to 



152 THE UNITED STATES. 

Conrt, to enrol themselves under his banner, many 
even selling their estates to take part in his adventures. 
Even a number of brave Portuguese enlisted in the 
service. The muster at the port of San Lucar of Barra- 
meda furnished a remarkable scene, the Portuguese 
glittering in burnished armour, and the Castilians being 
" very gallant with silk upon silk." Soto made choice 
of six hundred men for his purposes, all iu the bloom of 
life, and the very pick of the Peninsula. Some have 
said that he had several hundreds more than this in 
his expedition, which was fitted out with the double 
purpose of conquest and colonization. The fleet con- 
sisted of nine vessels, ships, caravels, and pinnaces ; 
and in addition to the soldiers and crews, they carried 
nearly three hundred horses, a large herd of swine, and 
a number of bloodhounds. 

The expedition safely reached Cuba, where De Soto 
began his preparations for the conquest of Florida. 
He left his wife to govern Cuba, and on the 18th of May, 
1539, sailed from Havana. After a good passage, the 
fleet anchored at Tamj^a Bay in about twelve days. 
The adventurers at once began their march into the 
interior, following practically the route of Narvaez some 
years before. De Soto early fell in with a Spaniard 
who had long been held in captivity by the Indians. 
The historians Bryant and Gay observe that " the 
romantic story of John Smith and Pocahontas was in 
part anticipated in the experience of this man, Juan 
Ortiz. When first captured by a band whose chief 
was named Ucita, he was bound hand and foot to 
stakes, stretched at length upon a scaffolding, beneath 
which a fire was kindled. The smoke had enwreathed 



JACQUES CAETIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 153 

the victim, and the forked flames were leaping to 
seize the naked flesh, when the intended holocaust 
was suddenly interrupted by the prayers of a daughter 
of the chief. She besought her father to spare the 
life of the Christian; one such, she urged, if he could 
do no good, at least could do no harm ; and she made 
a cunning appeal to the vanity of the chief, by suggest- 
ing how great a distinction it would be to hold a white 
man as a captive. Her prayers were listened to ; 
Ortiz was lifted from the scaffold and unbound, to 
serve henceforth as a slave. What the feeling was 
which the sight of the pale stranger had aroused in 
the bosom of the dusky maiden, or what the relation 
which may have afterward existed between them, we 
are not told ; but whether it was on her part mere pity 
for a stranger, or a tenderer and deeper sentiment, the 
service was not forgotten. Three years later Ucita was 
defeated in a petty war with another chieftain, and 
there was danger that Ortiz would be sacrificed to 
propitiate the devil whose anger, Ucita believed, had 
brought this misfortune upon him and his people. 
Then the princess came again to the rescue of the 
stranger, and saved him from probable death. Warn- 
ing him of his danger, and leading him secretly and 
alone in the night-time beyond the boundaries of her 
father's village, she put him in the way to find the 
camp of the victorious chieftain who had just triumphed 
over her father, and would protect, she knew, the 
Christian slave. Ortiz, when years afterwards he heard 
that his countrymen had arrived in Florida, was glad 
enough to welcome them, while he did not forget that 
he had some cause of gratitude to his Indian friends. 



154 THE UNITED STATES. 

As a horseman rode at him, not distinguishing him from 
the savages, he cried oat, ' Do not kill me, cavalier ; I 
am a Christian ! Do not slay these people ; they have 
given me my life I ' Fortunately his appeal was 
heard in time, and to him the expedition was more 
indebted than to any other man, next to De Soto him- 
self; for through him alone was it possible to hold any 
intelligent communication with the Indians, whether 
for peace or war. His death, which occurred not long 
before that of the governor, was a source of deep 
perplexity, and a ' great cross to his designs.' " 

To ensure his men remaining with him, De Soto 
had sent his ships back to Cuba before leaving the 
coast, so that his followers were now obliged to press 
forward with him. He played upon their avarice as 
well as their religious feelings in his march. But after 
wandering for three months — July to October, 1539 — 
and discovering no gold at Appalachee as promised, and 
finding, moreover, the journey to be full of dangers 
and the Indians hostile, the whole company grew 
dispirited. They begged their leader to return, but he 
replied, " I will not turn back till I have seen the 
poverty of the country with my own eyes." Indians 
were captured, and made to grind the maize and carry 
the baggage. One exploring party discovered Ochus, 
the harbour of Pensacola ; and a messenger was 
despatched to Cuba for supplies to be forwarded to 
that place. 

Early in the spring of 1540, says Mr. Bancroft, 
" the wanderers renewed their march, with an Indian 
guide, who promised to lead the way to a country 
governed, it was said, by a woman, and where gold 



JACQUES CAETIEK AND FEllDINAND DB SOTO. 155 

SO abounded that the art of melting and refiumg it 
was understood. He described the process so well 
that the credulous Spaniards took heart. The Indian 
appears to have pointed towards the gold region of 
North Carolina. The adventurers, therefore, eagerly 
hastened to the north-east ; they passed the Alatamaha ; 
they admired the fertile valleys of Georgia, rich, pro- 
ductive, and full of good rivers. They crossed a 
northern tributary of the Alatamaha and a southern 
branch of the Ogeechee ; and at length came upon the 
Ogeechee itself, which, in April, flowed with a full 
channel and a strong current. Much of the time the 
Spaniards were in wild solitudes ; they suffered for 
want of salt and of meat. Their Indian guide affected 
madness ; but ' they said a gospel over him, and the 
fit left him.' Again he involved them in pathless 
wilds, and then he would have been torn in pieces by 
the dogs if he had not still been needed to assist the 
interpreter. Of four Indian captives, who were ques- 
tioned, one bluntly answered, he knew no country 
such as they described ; the governor ordered him to 
be burnt, for what was esteemed his falsehood. The 
sight of the execution quickened the invention of his 
companions, and the Spaniards made their way to the 
small Indian settlement of Cutifa-Chiqui. A dagger 
and a rosary were found here ; the story of the Indians 
traced them to the expedition of Vasquez de Ayllon ; 
and a two days' journey would reach, it was believed, 
the harbour of St. Helena. The soldiers thought of 
home, and desired either to make a settlement on the 
fruitful soil around them, or to return. The governor 
was ' a stern man, and of few words.' Willingly 



156 THE UNITED STATES. 

hearing tlie opinion of others, he was inflexible, when 
he had once declared his own mind ; and all his 
followers, ' condescending to his will,' continued to 
indulge delusive hopes. 

" In May the direction of the march was to the 
north, to the comparatively sterile country of the 
Cherokees, and in part through a district in which 
gold is now found. The inhabitants were poor, but 
gentle ; they offered such presents as their habits of 
life permitted — deer-skins and wild hens. Soto could 
hardly have crossed the mountains, so as to enter the 
basin of the Tennessee River ; it seems, rather that 
he passed from the head-waters of the Savannah or 
the Chattahoochee to the head-waters of the Coosa. 
The name of Canasanga, a village at which he halted, 
is still given to a branch of the latter stream. For 
several months the Spaniards were in the valleys 
which send their waters to the Bay of Mobile. 
Chiaha was an island, distant about one hundred miles 
from Canasanga. An exploring party which was sent 
to the north were appalled by the aspect of the 
Appalachian Chain, and pronounced the mountains 
impassable. They had looked for mines of copper and 
gold ; and their only plunder was a buffalo robe." 

On one occasion during his journeyings, there came 
to meet the governor an Indian queen, who presented 
the Spaniards with pearls, telling them there were 
great quantities to be found in the vicinity. As a 
sample of De Soto's methods, he retained the queen, 
or cacica, as a captive, and made slaves and beasts of 
burden of her subjects ; but she managed to make her 
escape. Her people were the most civilized of any 



JACQUES GAKTIEK AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 157 

of the Indians yet met with, and wore shoes and 
clothing made from skins. 

The Spaniards reached Coosa in July, and in 
October they were at Mavilla, or Mobile, a town on 
the Alabama, above the junction of the Tombigbee, 
and one hundred miles from Pensacola. The name 
Mobile is now not only applied to the bay, but to the 
river, after the union of its numerous tributaries. 
The Spaniards wished to occupy the cabins of the 
Indians ; and as the latter resisted, there ensued one 
of the most bloody race battles ever fought in the 
United States. The town was set on fire, and one 
witness reported that two thousand five hundred 
Indians were slain, sufibcated, or burnt. Eighteen 
Christians died, and one hundred and twenty were 
wounded. Soto's curious collections perished in the 
flames. 

Although De Soto had now lost more than a 
hundred men, and was within six days of Pensacola, 
he concealed the latter fact, lest his men should desert 
him, and determined to push his way towards the 
north. "A month passed away before he reached 
winter quarters at Chica(;;a, a small town in the coun- 
try of the Chickasaws, in the upper part of the State 
of Mississippi, probably on the western bank of the 
Yazoo. The weather was severe, and snow fell ; but 
maize was yet standing in the open fields. The 
Spaniards were able to gather a supply of food, and 
the deserted town, with such rude cabins as they 
added, afi'orded them shelter through the winter. Yet 
no mines of Peru were discovered; no ornaments of 
gold adorned the rude savages ; their wealth was the 



158 THE UNITED STATES. 

harvest of corn, and wigwams were their ocly palaces ; 
they were poor and independent ; they were hardy and 
loved freedom. When spring opened, Soto, as he 
had usually done with other tribes, demanded of the 
chieftain of the Chickasaws two hundred men to carry 
the burdens of his company. The Indians hesitated. 
Human nature is the same in every age and in every 
climate. Like the inhabitants of Athens in the days of 
Themistocles, or those of Moscow of a recent day, the 
Chickasaws, unwilling to see strangers and enemies 
occupy their homes, in the dead of night, deceiving 
the sentinels, set fire to their own village, in which 
the Castilians were encamped. On a sudden, half the 
houses were in flames ; and the loudest notes of the 
war-whoop rang through the air. The Indians, could 
they have acted with calm bravery, might have gained 
an easy and entire victory ; but they trembled at their 
own success, and feared the unequal battle against 
weapons of steel. Many of the horses had broken 
loose ; these, terrified and without riders, roamed 
through the forest, of which the burning village 
illuminated the shades, and seemed to the ignorant 
natives the gathering of hostile squadrons. Others 
of the horses perished in the stables ; most of the 
swine were consumed ; eleven of the Christians were 
burnt, or lost their lives in the tumult. The clothes 
which had been saved from the fires of Mobile were 
destroyed, and the Spaniards, now as naked as the 
natives, suffered from the cold. Weapons and equip- 
ments were consumed or spoiled. Had the Indians 
made a resolute onset on this night or the next, the 
Spaniards would have been unable to resist. But, 



JACQUES CAETIER AND FEEDINAND DE SOTO. 159 

in a respite of a week, forges were erected, swords 
newly tempered, and good ashen lances were made, 
equal to the best of Biscay, When the Indians attacked 
the camp, they found ' the Christians ' prepared." 

De Soto's pride was too great to allow him to 
return and confess that his expedition had been a 
failure, though none of its objects had yet been accom- 
plished, or seemed likely to be. He therefore still 
struggled on in quest of the golden regions ; and after 
a painful march through forests and marshes, arrived 
in April, 1541, at certain Indian settlements in the 
vicinity of the Mississippi. In the following mouth 
the expedition crossed the great river at about the 
thirty-fifth degree of latitude, or the boundary line 
between the States of Mississippi and Tennessee. 

Progress in ascending the Mississippi was very 
slow, the Spaniards being sometimes compelled to 
wade through morasses. But in June they came 
upon the district of Little Prairie, and the dry and 
elevated lands extending towards New Madrid. The 
natives adored the travellers as children of the Sun, 
and brought their blind to them to receive their sight. 
The people subsisted on wild fruits. The northern- 
most point which De Soto reached in his march up 
the Mississippi was called Pacaha — which cannot now 
be identified — and here he remained from the 19th of 
June to the 29th of July. An exploring party sent to 
the north reported the country to be a desert, and 
the land still nearer the Missouri to be thinly in- 
habited. The Indians here were hunters, and the bison 
abounded, but nothing else. 

De Soto now turned to the west and north-west, 



160 THE UNITED STATES. 

and penetrated farther into the interior. With the 
main body of his men he seems to have got as far 
as the highhinds of the White River, upwards of two 
hundred miles from the Mississippi, and then to have 
marched almost southwards through a country well 
watered, fertile, and thickly inhabited, to the present 
site of Little Rock, in Arkansas. The expedition came 
upon the saline springs in Arkansas; and at a town 
called Antiamque, on the Washita River, it went into 
winter quarters. The Spaniards cruelly ill-treated 
the Indians on the very slightest provocation. De 
Soto and his companions seem to have felt their dis- 
appointed hojies most keenly, and this made them 
still harsher towards the natives. In three years' 
wanderings the commander had lost two hundred and 
fifty men and one hundred and fifty horses; and from 
the time of his first winter at Appalachee Bay, his 
wife, the Dona Isabella, had received no tidings of 
him whatever. 

The melancholy story of De Soto's tragic end is 
thus related by the historians : 

" With the spring the march was resumed, and the 
sole object now was to reach the sea. Communication 
with the Indians had become more difficult, for Ortiz 
had died in the course of the winter. The Indians, 
observing the weakness and perplexities of the 
Spaniards, were more defiant than any of their tribes 
had hitherto been. A haughty cacique sent word to 
De Soto that his boast of being the son of the Sun 
would be accepted when he was seen to dry up the 
great river ; that meanwhile it was not the custom of 
him who sent this message to visit inferiors ; if the 



( 



JACQUES CAETIEB AND FEKDINAND DE SOTO. 161 

stranger wished to see Lim, he was always at home ; 
if he came in peace, he would find a welcome ; if with 
hostile intentions, the chief was equally ready for him. 
De Soto was in no condition to punish or resent this 
defiance. An expedition that was sent down the river 
to find the sea returned and reported that in eight 
days' journey they could make but little progress, for 
the country was full of swamps and dense forests, and 
that the river with many bends ran far up into the land. 
" Worn down with hardships, anxiety, disappoint- 
ment, and despair, De Soto sank under this accumulation 
of misfortunes. Conscious of approaching death, he 
called the principal officers of the expedition about 
him. He told them he was dying ; he thanked them 
for the fidelity and affection they had always shown 
him, and regretted that he had not been able to 
reward them as he had always hoped to do, and 
according to their deserts ; he asked pardon of all who 
believed they had cause of offence against him, and 
as a last favour he begged they would in his presence 
choose a leader to take his place, that he might leave 
them without fear of dissensions to arise after he was 
gone. They asked him to appoint his own successor, 
and he named Luis Moscoso de Alvarado, whom they 
all swore to obey. The next day, the 21st of May, 
1542, he died. It was thought wise to conceal his 
death from the Indians, for he had assured them not 
only that he was the son of the Sun, but that Chris- 
tians could not die. The new governor ordered him 
to be buried secretly in the gateway of the camp. 
But the suspicions of the natives, who had seen him 
sick, were aroused. He was no longer visible, but 

11 



162 THE UNITED STATES. 

they saw a new-made grave, and gathering about it 
looked down with curious eyes and in solemn whispered 
consultation upon the mysterious heap of earth. Then 
Moscoso ordered the body to be disinterred with great 
precaution in the dead of night ; and the mantles in 
which it was wrapped being made heavy with sand, 
it was dropped silently and in the darkness in the 
middle of the deep waters of the Mississippi. And 
when the cacique of Guachoya came to Moscoso 
and said, ' What has been done with my brother 
and lord, the governor ? ' the answer was, ' He has 
ascended into the skies for a little while, and will soon 
be back.' 

"Either De Soto misunderstood this Luis de Moscoso 
or history has belied him. It is said that he loved 
a life of ease and gaiety in a Christian land, rather 
than one of toil and hardship and self-denial in the 
discovery and subjection of strange countries. But 
whether he believed that longer persistence in an 
enterprise, now in its fourth year, whose sole fruits 
had been death and disaster, was foolhardiness, or 
whether he wanted the energy and boldness to pursue 
it and achieve success, he decided at once to lead his 
companions back to Cuba, if he could find the way. 
When this was announced, and a council called to 
consult as to the best direction to pursue, there were 
many who were glad that De Soto was quiet in his 
loaded mantles at the bottom of the great river. 
With him the enterprise could have ended only with 
his and their lives, and they rejoiced that he was 
taken and they left." 

Moscoso and his followers endeavoured to search 



JACQUES CAETIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 163 

ont their conntrymen on the Pacific coast. Out of 
the wilderness, and from the hnnting grounds of the 
Pawnees and Comanches, they made their way to the 
Mississijjpi, reaching it in December at a place called 
Minoya, a few leagues above the mouth of Red River. 
Here they rested, and constructed seven brigantines, 
which were frail barks without decks. Upon these 
the survivors of the expedition began their voyage 
down the river on the 2nd of July, 1543. After a 
passage of seventeen days, they reached the Gulf of 
Mexico, a distance of nearly five hundred miles. They 
found the Indians very aggressive ; but sailing forth 
into the gulf, the explorers cruised for fifty days 
along the coast of Louisiana and Texas, until they 
reached the Spanish colony of Panuco, their numbers 
being now reduced to three hundred and eleven men. 
They were in a most pitiable condition, being half 
starved and half clothed. But they so rejoiced at 
finding their countrymen that " on bended knees, with 
hands raised above them, and their eyes to heaven, 
they remained untiring in giving thanks to God." 

This famous expedition practically achieved nothing, 
but its members were the first to discover that for 
some distance from the mouth of the Mississippi the 
sea is not salt, so vast is the volume of fresh water 
which the river discharges. Undeterred by the fate 
of De Soto, and the failures of this first voyage of 
Europeans to the Mississippi, several other ex- 
peditions sailed from Spain to the same quarter, 
before that of Tristan de Luna, described in the pre- 
ceding chapter, but they all proved abortive and 
ended in disaster. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENGLISH ADVENTUEEKS — FEOBISHEK AND GILBERT. 

ENGLISH interest in North American discovery 
was awakened with the birth of the sixteenth 
century. Most of the early voyages were undertaken 
with the view of discovering a short route to India. 
It is conjectured that two merchants and mariners of 
Bristol, named Thorne and Eliot, visited Newfound- 
land in 1502 ; and certainly in that year savages in 
their native attire were exhibited to the King of 
England. Trade privileges had already been granted 
to an Anglo-Portuguese company, but they chiefly 
concerned Newfoundland and its fisheries. 

In 1527 Robert Thorne, an eminent merchant of 
London — son of the Thorne mentioned above — urged 
Henry VIII. to send expeditions to the east by way 
of the north, believing that there would be found an 
open sea near the Pole, through which, during the con- 
tinuous Arctic day, Englishmen might reach the land 
of spices without travelling half so far as by way of 
the Cape of Good Hope. Two vessels, the Mary of 
Guilford and the Samson — in which Cardinal Wolsey 
had an interest — sailed from London in the above- 
named year ; but the former accomplished nothing, 
while the latter was lost. 

164 



ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 165 

The tragic voyage of Master Hore, who was 
" assisted by the King's favour and good counte- 
nance," and accompanied by many gentlemen of the 
Inns of Court and of Chancery, took place in 1536. 
The party, numbering one hundred and ten persons, 
sailed from Gravesend in the ships Trmitie and Minion. 
They reached Newfoundland in safety, but soon suffered 
so severely from famine that they murdered each 
other secretly and fed upon the flesh of the victims. 
The captain strongly condemned this as a deadly sin 
before God. Eventually the remnant of the expedi- 
tion obtained possession of a French ship and returned 
to England. 

The sad fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby is well known. 
Sailing from London with three ships in May, 1553, 
with the object of reaching China by doubling the 
northern promontory of Norway, the admiral got 
separated from his companions, and was driven in 
September into a Lapland harbour. His whole 
company perished from cold ; and when search was 
made in the following spring, Willoughby was found 
dead in his cabin, a pen between his frozen fingers. 
His journal, which was lying open on the table before 
him, showed that he had survived till January. 

Sir Martin Frobisher, one of the great Elizabethan 
seamen, was the next prominent North American 
navigator. Frobisher was born in Yorkshire in 1535. 
He was sent to sea as a boy, and soon traded on his 
own account to Guinea and elsewhere. Like every- 
body else at this period, he was possessed by the idea 
of a north-west passage to Cathay, and in this he 
was strengthened by an ingenious essay written by 



166 THE UNITED STATES. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in wliich the writer set forth 
that America was the Atlantis of Plato, Aristotle, 
and other ancient philosophers, and that it was possible 
to sail round the north of it to China and East India. 

Frobisher was a poor man ; but after much solicita- 
tion he found a patron in the Earl of Warwick, 
through whose help he was able to fit out an ex- 
pedition. "Two small barques of twenty-five and of 
twenty tons, with a pinnace of ten tons' burden, 
composed the whole fleet, which was to enter gulfs 
that none before him had visited. As in June, 1576, 
they dropped down the Thames, Queen Elizabeth 
waved her hand in token of favour, and, by an honour- 
able message, transmitted her approbation of an 
adventure which her own treasures had not contributed 
to advance. During a storm on the voyage, the 
pinnace was swallowed up by the sea ; the mariners 
in the Michael became terrified, and turned their prow 
homewards ; but Frobisher, in a vessel not much sur- 
passing in tonnage the barge of a man-of-war, made 
his way, fearless and unattended, to the shores of 
Labriidor, and to a passage or inlet north of the 
entiance of Hudson's Bay. A strange perversion has 
transferred the scene of his discoveries to the eastern 
coast of Greenland ; it was among a grouj) of American 
islands, in the latitude of sixty-three degrees and eight 
minutes, that he entered what seemed to be a strait. 
Hope suggested that his object was obtained, that 
the land on the south was America, on the north 
was the continent of Asia, and that the strait opened 
into the Pacific. Great praise is due to Frobisher 
for penetrating far beyond all former mariners into 



ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 167 

the bays and among the islands of this Meta Incognita, 
this unknown goal of discovery. Yet his voyage was 
a failure. To land upon an island, and perhaps on 
the main ; to gather up stones and rubbish, in token of 
having taken possession of the country for Elizabeth ; 
to seize one of the natives of the north for exhibition 
to the gaze of Europe, — these were all the results 
which he accomplished. 

"America and mines were always thought of to- 
gether. A stone which had been brought from the frozen 
regions was pronounced by the refiners of London to 
contain gold. The news excited the wakeful avarice 
of the city : there were not wanting those who en- 
deavoured to purchase of Elizabeth a lease of the new 
lands where it had been found, A fleet was immediately 
fitted out to procure more of the gold, rather than to 
make further research for the passage into the Pacific ; 
and the Queen, who had contributed nothing to the 
voyage of d.s>jovery, sent a large ship of her own to 
join the expedition, which was now to conduct to 
infinite opulence. More men than could be employed 
volunteered their services ; those who were discharged 
resigned their brilliant hopes with reluctance." 

This second expedition embarked in May, 1577, and 
soon reached the Orkneys. On nearing the American 
coast, the vessels were steered with difficulty through 
numberless icebergs. When the explorers landed, they 
freighted the ships with earth which they believed to 
contain gold ; but it was a delusion, and the whole 
voyage was a failure, not accomplishiug so much as 
Frobisher had done alone. 

A third voyage made by Frobisher in 1578 was 



168 THE UNITED STATES. 

more important than either of those which had pre- 
ceded it, for it was the first attempt at English 
colonization in North America. A splendid fleet of 
fifteen sail was fitted out, partly at the expense of 
Elizabeth, and the volunteers included sons of many 
Englishmen of position. One hundred persons were 
selected to form the colony, which was to secure great 
wealth for England ; and twelve vessels were to return 
immediately with cargoes of ore, three being ordered 
to remain and aid the settlement. Alas, for the 
futility of human hopes ! " The entrance to these 
wealthy islands was rendered difficult by frost ; and 
the fleet of Frobisher, as in midsummer, 1578, it 
approached the American coast, was bewildered among 
icebergs, which were so vast that, as they melted, 
torrents poured from them in sparkling waterfalls. 
One vessel was crushed and sunk, though the men on 
board were saved. In the dangerous mists the ships 
lost their course, and came into the straits which have 
since been called Hudson's, and which lie south of the 
imagined gold regions. The admiral believed himself 
able to sail through to the Pacific, and resolve the 
doubt respecting the passage. But his duty as a 
mercantile agent controlled his desire of glory as a 
navigator. He struggled to regain the harbour where 
his vessels were to be laden ; and after ' getting in at 
one gap and out at another,' escaping only by miracle 
from hidden rocks and unknown currents, ice, and a 
lee shore, which was, at one time, avoided only by a 
prosperous breath of wind in the very moment of 
extreme danger, he at last arrived at the haven in 
the Countess of Warwick's Sound. The zeal of the 



ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 169 

volunteer colonists had moderated ; and the dis- 
heartened sailors were ready to mutiny. One ship, 
laden with provisions for the colony, deserted and re- 
turned ; and an island was discovered with enough of 
the black ore ' to suffice all the gold-gluttons of the 
world.' The plan of the settlement was abandoned. It 
remained to freight the home-bound ships with a store 
of minerals. They who engage in a foolish project 
combine, in case of failure, to conceal their loss ; for 
the truth would be an impeachment of their judgment; 
so that unfortunate speculations are promptly consigned 
to oblivion. The adventurers and the historians of 
the voyage are silent about the disposition which was 
made of the cargo of the fleet. The knowledge of the 
seas was not extended; the credulity of avarice met 
with a rebuke ; and the belief in regions of gold 
among the Esquimaux was dissipated ; but there re- 
mained a firm conviction that a passage to the Pacific 
Ocean might yet be threaded among the icebergs and 
northern islands of America." 

The remaining incidents of Frobisher's career are 
soon told. In 1585 he commanded a vessel in Drake's 
expedition to the West Indies, and three years later he 
so distinguished himself in the defeat of the Spanish 
Armada by his conduct in the Triumph that he re- 
ceived the honour of knighthood. He now married a 
daughter of Lord Wentworth, and settled down as 
a country gentleman ; but the old spirit became too 
strong in him, and he once more scoured the seas for 
the treasure-ships of Spain. He was wounded at the 
Siege of Crozon, near Brest, in November, 1594 ; and 
being taken into Plymouth, died there before the end 



170 THE UNITED STATES. 

of the same month. We have a permanent reminder 
of the navigator in Frobisher Bay, an inlet opening 
westward near the mouth of Davis Strait, into the 
territory called by Frobisher Meta Incognita, at the 
southern end of Baffia Land. It is about two hundred 
miles long by twenty wide, and has rugged, mountainous 
shores. 

Important work was done in Northern America 
about this time by another English navigator, John 
Davis, whose name is given to the strait above men- 
tioned. Davis was born at Sandridge, near Dartmouth, 
about 1550; and in 1585 and the two following years 
he made three vo^'ages to the Arctic Seas in search of 
a north-west passage. On the third occasion he left 
his two small vessels on the coast of Cumberland 
Island to fish, while he went northward in a pinnace, 
bravely pushing his way through icebergs and fields 
of ice. He penetrated Baffin Bay as far as the seventy- 
third degree of latitude, and discovered the strait bear- 
ing his name, which connects Baffin Bay with the 
Atlantic Ocean. Finding on his return that his men 
had abandoned him, he ventured to cross the Atlantic 
in his pinnace, and safely reached home. Subsef|uently 
he made two ill-fated voyages towards the South Seas, 
and as pilot of a Dutch vessel bound to the East Indies. 
In his last voyage as pilot of an English ship of two 
hundred and forty tons, he was killed in a brush with 
some Japanese pirates at Bintang, near Singapore, on 
the 30th of December, 1605. 

One of the most touching narratives in Hakluyt is 
that which relates the adventures of Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert. This eminent British navigator was born at 



ENGLISH ADVENTUEERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 1 71 

Dartmoutli in 1539, and was educated at Eton and 
Oxford. Afterwards abandoning the law for a career 
of arms, he did such good service against the Irish 
rehels as earned him knighthood and the government 
of Muuster in 1570. Next he saw five years' cam- 
paigning in the Netherlands. In 1576 appeared his 
Discourse on a North-west Passage to India, which 
was published by George Gascoigne without his know- 
ledge. In 1578 Gilbert secured a charter, extending 
over six years, with powers to discover " such remote 
heathen and barbarous lands as were not actually 
possessed by any Christian prince or people," and to 
retain them for his own as absolute projmetor. Al- 
though the Canadian territory was the best known, 
Gilbert decided that the lands north of Florida were 
the best "to be reduced into Christian civility by the 
English nation." 

The various chronicles report that " Sir Walter 
Raleigh was chief among those who entered into this 
scheme of his half-brother, who contributed money, 
influence, and personal effort for its success. When, 
the year after Gilbert received the charter, he made 
the first attempt to avail himself of the privileges it 
bestowed, Raleigh, it is said, sailed with him. The 
expedition, however, returned within a few days 
crii)pled, and with the loss of one ship, probably 
captured in a fight with the Sjjaniards at sea. But 
it encountered many difficulties even before starting. 
Dissensions had arisen among those who had engaged 
in it, followed by withdrawals ; then Orders of Council 
came, first that Gilbert should only put to sea under 
sureties of good behaviour ; then that he should 



172 THE UNITED STATES. 

abandon the enterprise altogether nnder pain of the 
Queen's displeasure. For the watchful Spaniards, 
jealous of every English vessel that turned her head 
westward, complained of depredations made or to 
be made upon Spanish commerce — complaints likely 
enough to be well founded, for he was no true British 
sailor in the reign of Elizabeth who did not hate the 
Spaniard as he hated the enemy of mankind, and did 
not hold him to be the lawful prey of all Christian 
men. But in 1583 the start was more successful. 
Raleigh's influence with Elizabeth removed all ob- 
stacles that the Lords of the Council could put in the 
way, if they were still disposed to listen to Spanish 
complaints, or the Spaniards to offer them. The 
Queen wished Gilbert ' as great goodhap and safety 
to his ship as if herself were there in person,' and 
desired him to send her his picture as a keepsake. 
His charter, moreover, expired in a year, and he could 
afford to delay no longer. He sailed in June in 
command of five ships, the largest of which, the 
Raleigh, was fitted out by Sir Walter himself at an 
expense of £2,000, and was two hundred tons' burden. 
The smallest, the Squirrel, was only ten tons' burden ; 
of the other three, the Golden Hind and the Swallow 
measured forty tons each ; and the admiral's ship, the 
Delight, was one hundred and twenty tons. The 
Raleigh deserted them in a few days, and returned to 
port, pestilence having broken out, it was said, among 
her crew; but something else was the matter. ' For,' 
says Captain Edward Hayes, the owner and captain of 
the Golden Hind, as well as historian of the expe- 
dition, ' the reason I could never understand. . . . 



ENGLISH ADVENTUREKS — FROBISHEE AND GILBERT. 173 

Therefore I leave it nnto God.' And Gilbert himself 
wrote to Sir George Peckham, 'The Ai^k Raleigh ran 
from me in fair and clear weather, having a large 
wind. I pray yon, solicit my brother Raleigh to make 
them an example to all knaves.'" 

The expedition consisted altogether of abont two 
hundred and sixty men, including mechanics, mineral 
men, and refiners. A band of music, and morris- 
dancers, etc., were also on board, and many pretty 
wares wherewith to tempt the savage races. The 
vessels arrived safely at St. John's, Newfoundland, 
where Sir Humphrey read to the assembled fishermen 
and tradesmen his commission from the Queen. He 
took possession of the place and the neighbouring 
country, for two hundred leagues in every direction, 
with proper solemnities, and set up a pillar with the 
arms of England engraved upon it. His intention was 
to make his way to the south, but trouble arose among 
the men. Many were disabled by sickness, others 
deserted, and some died. A conspiracy was formed 
to seize the vessels, but this was defeated. Never- 
theless, a portion of the crews boarded a fishing vessel, 
and put out to sea. Gilbert now sent home the Sioallow 
with the sick and as many of the discontented and 
the insubordinate as could be spared. This left him 
with three vessels only and a small company. 

Setting forth at length from St. John's, the expedi- 
tion doubled Cape Race, sailed along the west coast 
of Newfoundland as far as Placentia Bay, and then 
headed for Cape Breton and Sable Island, meaning to 
land upon the latter. But the vessels were beaten 
about by contrary winds ; and after struggling for 



174 THE UNITED STATES. 

more than a week, were driven upon a lee shore on 
the dangerous coasts of Nova Scotia. The Delight, 
which was the largest ship, struck and went to pieces, 
and all upon her were drowned, save seventeen men 
who got away upon a raft, and of whom fifteen reached 
Newfoundland. The death of Maurice Browne, the 
captain of the Delight, showed the stuff of which these 
old mariners were made. He refused to leave his 
ship ; but " mounting upon the highest deck, he 
attended imminent death and unavoidable." Those who 
perished were the men who had dispossessed the crew 
of a French fishing vessel and left them to perish, so 
that this was regarded as Grod's judgment upon them. 

Meanwhile, the Golden Hind and the Squirrel 
hauled off the shore and stood out to sea. But the 
weather was terribly cold and tempestuous, and Gilbert 
turned his course for England. The last scene in his 
eventful and fateful history is thus described : 

" Notwithstanding the disasters that had attended 
the expedition. Sir Humphrey was content. At St. 
John's one of his assayers had brought him an ore 
which he solemnly affirmed was of silver, and so per- 
suaded of this was Gilbert that he believed he had but 
to return in the spring to gather great wealth. This 
vision took possession of him, and was a great comfort 
in all his trials, though it did not make him forget 
his wise purpose of colonization on the continent 
farther south. The specimens of the ore had been 
left on board the Delight by mistake of his servant, 
and the assayer, who knew most about them, was 
lost in that vessel. 

" But Sir Humphrey knew where to find the mine. 



ENGLISH ADVENTUREES — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 175 

Hitherto he had said little about it, and had enjoined 
silence upon others ; but now that he was far out at 
sea and returning to England after so many mis- 
fortunes, he talked not a little about the great store 
of silver in his new possessions. The thing he seemed 
most to regret, next to the loss of his men, was the 
loss of the lumps of ore ; and when long after, on 
visiting the Golden Hind at sea, he met the boy whose 
fault it was that these precious minerals were left on 
the Delight, he fell upon and beat him ' in great rage.' 
Good and pious and wise man as he was known to 
be, he was of a choleric and unforgiving disposition. 
Years before, when he was putting down the rebellion 
in Ireland, the castle or fort that did not surrender 
at his first summons he ' would not afterwards,' he 
said, ' take it of their gift, but won it perforce — how 
many lives soever it cost ; putting man, woman, and 
child of them to the sword.' There was good reason 
why he should be more feared than any other man by 
the Irish, as Raleigh said he was. Among sailors 
who were pirates if they had the opportunity, and 
among Irish outlaws who were no better than half 
savages, he showed little of the quality of mercy. 

" So much did he rely upon his mine of silver, that 
he was sure the Queen, upon report thereof, would 
readily advance £10,000 wherewith he would equip 
two fleets in the spring, one to bring home the ore, 
the other for a new venture to the south to plant 
colonies. ' I will set yon forth royally next spring,' 
he said to his companions, ' if God send us safe home.' 
That hope was not ill-founded ; the promise of sudden 
wealth in the New World was never made to dull ears. 



176 THE UNITED STATES. 

" But it would only have been one more idle tale to 
be confuted, for there was no mine ; the colonies, other 
hands than his were to plant. 

" The vessel Gilbert had last embarked upon was the 
Squirrel, the smallest of the fleet, of only ten tons' 
burden. He was besought to leave her and find greater 
safety on board the Golden Hind ; but his answer 
was always, ' I will not forsake my little company 
going homewards, with whom 1 have passed so many 
storms and perils.' Severe as he was, he would ask 
no man to do that which he was himself afraid to do. 
So small a craft was a poor thing in which to cross 
the Atlantic in September. The weather was foul, 
the waves 'terrible, breaking short and high like 
pyramids. . . . Never men saw more outrageous seas.' 
On the 9th of the month the Squirrel came near 
foundering, but rode out the storm. The Golden Hind 
approached and hailed ; and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 
sitting quietly in the stern of the boat with a book in his 
hand, answered cheerfully, ' We are as near to heaven 
by sea as by land.' In the darkness of the night that 
followed they anxiously watched on board the Hind 
for the Squirrel's lights ; suddenly at midnight, ' as 
it were in a moment,' they disappeared. The little 
vessel ' was devoured and swallowed up of the sea.' " 

Such was the death of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and 
such the sad termination of an expedition upon which 
great hopes were built. We shall see, however, that 
Sir Walter Raleigh, undismayed by the failure and death 
of his kinsman, undertook with great spirit and deter- 
mination the work of North American colonization. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DEAKE. 

THERE is no name more typical of the golden 
age of Elizabeth in all its nobler aspects than 
that of Sir Walter Raleigh. English history of that 
glorious period would lose much if his name were 
dropped out of it, even if we remember all the other 
names which shed lustre upon it. He was one of the 
makers of the age, not an offshoot of it, and was as 
distinguished for his universality as he was for his 
originality. 

Devonshire claimed the honour of his birth, and 
he was born of a good old family at the manor-house 
of Hayes, near Budleigh, in the year 1552. His 
mother, who had been married before, had given birth 
to the famous Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert. 
Walter Raleigh was educated at Oriel College, 
Oxford, and left there in 1569 in order to volunteer 
for Huguenot service in France. Not much is known 
of his apprenticeship to arms beyond the fact that 
he served at Montcontour. He early crossed the 
Atlantic, and joined in Humphrey Gilbert's disastrous 
expedition of 1578. 

In 1580 we find him in Ireland serving against 
the Irish rebels, where his boldness and daring soon 
made him conspicuous. He assisted largely in the 

177 12 



1/8 THE UNITED STATES. 

drastic policy for stamping out the rebellion, and re- 
turned to England in December, 1581. The favourite 
Leicester took him into his circle, and in February, 
1582, he accompanied him to the Netherlands. Soon 
after his return he became in high favour with the 
Queen, though the romantic story of his spreading 
his plash mantle before her in the mud may be 
apocryphal. Raleigh was a fine, handsome fellow, 
splendid in dress, witty in conversation, perfect in 
manners, and with a mind admirably stored with 
information. But he lacked the weightiness in 
counsel of a Burghley or a Walsingham, and never 
in consequence took the first rank of a statesman in 
the Queen's counsels. Elizabeth, however, lavished 
wealthy appointments upon him. In 1584 he was 
knighted, and in the following year he was appointed 
Lord Warden of the Stannaries, Lieutenant of Corn- 
wall, and Vice-Admiral of Devonshire and Cornwall. 
The same year he was returned to Parliament as one 
of the members for Devonshire, and in 1587 he was 
appointed Captain of the Queen's Guard. 

The fact that Raleigh had risked £2,000— then a 
large sum — in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's last and fatal 
expedition of 1583, did not deter him, as already stated, 
from further efforts in American exploration. On the 
contrary, he at once set to work, and in March, 1584, 
obtained a new patent from the Queen, with greatly 
enlarged powers and privileges. It was drawn accord- 
ing to the principles of feudal law, and with strict 
regard to the Christian faith, as professed in the Church 
of England. Raleigh was to be a lord proprietary, with 
almost unlimited powers, holding his territories under 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 179 

homage and at an almost nominal rent ; while he 
possessed jurisdiction over an extensive region, with 
power to make grants according to his pleasure. 

In one month from the date of his patent Raleigh 
had procured and manned two vessels, which sailed 
from the Thames on the 27th of April, under the 
command of Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur 
Barlow. After voyaging amongst the Canaries and 
the islands of the West Indies, the expedition sailed 
for the north, and on the 2nd of July reached the 
shores of Carolina. The coast was explored for one 
hundred and twenty miles ; and on entering the first con- 
venient harbour, the leaders of the expedition returned 
thanks to God for their safe arrival, and took possession 
of the country in the name of the Queen of England. 

" The spot on which this ceremony was performed," 
says Bancroft, "was in the Island of Wocoken, the 
southernmost of the islands forming Ocracoke Inlet. 
The shores of North Carolina, at some periods of the 
year, cannot safely he approached by a fleet, from the 
hurricanes against which the formation of the coast 
offers no secure roadsteads and harbours. But in the 
month of July the air was agitated by none but 
the gentlest breezes, and the English commanders 
were in raptures with the beauty of the ocean, seen in 
the magnificence of repose, gemmed with islands, and 
expanding in the clearest transparency from cape to 
cape. The vegetation of that southern latitude struck 
the beholders with admiration ; the trees had not their 
paragons ; luxuriant climbers gracefully festooned the 
loftiest cedars ; wild grapes abounded ; and natural 
arbours formed an impervious shade, that not a ray 



180 THE UNITED STATES. 

of the snns of July could penetrate. The forests 
were filled with birds ; and, at the discharge of an 
arquebuse, whole flocks would arise, uttering a cry, 
as if an army of men had shouted together. 

" The gentleness of the tawny inhabitants appeared 
in harmony with the loveliness of the scene. The 
desire of traffic overcame their timidity, and the 
English received a friendly welcome. On the Island 
of Roanoke, they were entertained by the wife of 
Grangamiues, father of Wingina, the king, with the 
refinements of Arcadian hospitality. ' The people 
were most gentle, loving, and faithful, void of all 
guile and treason, and such as lived after the manner 
of the golden age.' They had no cares but to guard 
against the moderate cold of a short winter, and to 
gather such food as the earth almost spontaneously 
produced. And yet it was added, with singular want 
of comparison, that the wars of these guileless men 
were cruel and bloody ; that domestic dissensions had 
almost terminated whole tribes ; that they employed 
the basest stratagems against their enemies ; and that 
the practice of inviting men to a feast, to murder 
them in the hour of confidence, was not exclusively a 
device of European bigots, but was known to the natives 
of Secotan. The English, too, were solicited to engage 
in a similar enterprise, under promise of lucrative booty. 

" The adventurers were satisfied with observing 
the general aspect of the New World ; no extensive 
examination of the coast was undertaken ; Pamlico 
and Albemarle Sound and Roanoke Island were 
explored, and some information gathered by enquiries 
from the Indians ; the commanders had not the courage 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DKAKE. 181 

or the activity to survey the country with exactness. 
Having made bnt a short stay in America, they arrived 
in September in the West of England, accompanied 
by Manteo and Wanchese, two natives of the wilderness ; 
and the returning voyagers gave such glowing de- 
scriptions of their discoveries as might be expected 
from men who had done no more than sail over the 
smooth waters of a summer's sea, among ' the hundred 
islands' of North Carolina. Elizabeth esteemed her 
reign signalized by the discovery of the enchanting 
regions, and, as a memorial of her state of life, named 
them Virginia." 

Raleigh obtained a Bill in Parliament confirming 
his patent of discovery, and resolved upon honestly 
pursuing his scheme for the colonization of Virginia. 
In the ensuing spring a larger expedition, and one 
with a more definite purpose, was fitted out. It con- 
sisted of seven vessels ; and the fleet sailed from 
Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, under the com- 
mand of the celebrated Sir Richard Grenville, who 
afterwards fought with great valour against the 
Spaniards. One hundred and eight colonists were to 
settle in Carolina under Richard Lane as governor. 
Lane was subsequently knighted. There were like- 
wise attached to the expedition Sir Thomas Cavendish, 
who soon after circumnavigated the globe; Thomas 
Hariot, the mathematician and astronomer, and in- 
ventor of the system of notation in modern algebra ; 
and John White, artist of the expedition, whose 
sketches of the appearance and habits of the natives 
of Virginia were the earliest and most authentic 
drawn by any Eurojiean. 



182 THE UNITED STATES. 

Two months after it set sail, the fleet touched the 
mainland of Florida. It was nearly wrecked on the 
cape, which now first received the name of Cape Fear ; 
but soon afterwards it came to anchor at Wocoken. 
The coast being full of shoals, the vessels made their 
way through Ocracoke Inlet to Roanoke. In July 
Grenville, accompanied by Lane, Harlot, Cavendish, 
and others, explored the coast as far as Secotan, being 
well received by the savages. After their return, 
Grenville sailed for England. 

It is of great interest to read the accounts of the 
first attempt at an English settlement, made by 
Lane and his fellow-colonists after the departure of 
Grenville. " It is the goodliest soil under the cope 
of heaven," wrote Lane ; "the most pleasing territory 
of the world ; the continent is of a huge and unknown 
greatness, and very well peopled and towned, though 
savagely. The climate is so wholesome that we have 
not one sick, since we touched the land. If Virginia had 
but horses and kine, and were inhabited with English, 
no realm in Christendom were comparable to it." 

Hariot was by far the keenest observer, however, 
for he was a man of altogether superior parts. As 
the summary of his own investigations shows, "he 
carefully examined the productions of the country, 
those which would furnish commodities for commerce, 
and those which were in esteem among the natives. 
He observed the culture of tobacco, accustomed himself 
to its use, and believed in its healing virtues. The 
culture and the extraordinary productiveness of maize 
especially attracted his admiration; and the tuberous 
roots of the potato, when boiled, were found to be 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 183 

very good food. The natural inhabitants are described 
as too feeble to inspire terror; clothed in mantles 
and aprons of deer-skins ; having no weapons but 
wooden swords and bows of witch-hazel with arrows 
of reeds ; no armonr but targets of bark and sticks 
wickered together with thread. Their largest towns con- 
tained but thirty dwellings. The walls of the houses 
were made of bark, fastened to stakes ; and sometimes 
consisted of poles fixed upright, one by another, and 
at the top bent over and fastened. But the great 
peculiarity of the Indians consisted in the want of 
political connection. A single town often constituted 
a government ; a collection of ten or twenty wigwams 
might be an independent state. The greatest chief in 
the country could not muster more than seven or eight 
hundred fighting men. The dialect of each govern- 
ment seemed a language by itself. The country 
which Hariot explored was on the boundary of the 
Algonkin race, where the Lenni-Lenape tribes melted 
into the widely difiering nations of the south. Their 
wars rarely led them to the open battle-field ; they 
were accustomed rather to sudden surprises at day- 
break or by moonlight, to ambushes and the subtle 
devices of cunning falsehood. Destitute of the arts, 
they yet displayed excellency of wit in all which they 
attempted. To the credulity of fetishism they joined 
an undeveloped conception of the unity of the Divine 
Power, continued existence after death, and retributive 
justice. The mathematical instruments, the burning- 
glass, guns, clocks, and the use of letters, seemed the 
works of gods rather than of men ; and the English 
were reverenced as the pupils and favourites of Heaven. 



184 THE UNITED STATES. 

In every town which Hariot entered, he displayed and 
explained the Bible ; the Indians revered the volume 
rather than its doctrines ; with a fond superstition 
they embraced the book, kissed it, and held it to their 
breasts and heads, as an amulet. As the colonists 
enjoyed uniform health, and had no women with them, 
there were some among the Indians who imagined the 
English were not born of women, and therefore not 
mortal ; that they were men of an old generation 
risen to immortality. The terrors of fire-arms the 
natives could neither comprehend nor resist ; every 
sickness which now prevailed among them was at- 
tributed to wounds from invisible bullets, discharged by 
unseen agents, with whom the air was supposed to be 
peopled. They prophesied that ' more of the English 
generation would come, to kill theirs and take their 
places ' ; and some believed that the purpose of exter- 
mination was already matured, and its execution begun." 
" Was it strange, then," as one of the historians 
of the period asks, " that the natives desired to be 
delivered from guests by whom they feared to be 
supplanted ? The colonists were mad for gold ; and 
a wily savage allured them by tales : that the River 
Roanoke gushed from a rock so near the Pacific that 
the surge of that ocean sometimes dashed into its 
fountain ; that its banks were inhabited by a nation 
skilled in the art of refining the rich ore in which the 
country abounded. The walls of their city were 
described as glittering with pearls. Lane was so 
credulous that he attempted to ascend the rapid current 
of the Roanoke ; and his followers would not return 
until their stores of provisions were exhausted, and they 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 185 

had killed and eaten the very dogs which bore them 
company. On this attempt to explore the interior, 
the English hardly advanced higher np the river than 
some point near the present village of Williamstown. 

" The Indians had hoped to destroy the English by 
thus dividing them ; bnt the prompt return of Lane 
prevented open hostilities. They next conceived the 
plan of leaving their lands unplanted, that famine 
might compel the departure of their too powerful 
guests. The suggestion was defeated by the modera- 
tion of one of their aged chiefs ; but the feeling of 
enmity could not be restrained. The English believed 
that fear of a foreign enemy was teaching the natives 
the necessity of union, and that a grand alliance was 
forming to destroy the strangers by a general massacre. 
Desiring an audience of Wingina, the most active 
among the native chiefs. Lane and his attendants 
were on the first day of June readily admitted to 
his presence. Immediately, and without any sign 
of hostile intentions by the Indians, a preconcerted 
watchword was given, and the Christians, falling upon 
the unhappy king and his principal followers, put 
them without mercy to death. 

" The discoveries of Lane were inconsiderable : to 
the south they had extended only to Secotan, in the 
present county of Craven, between the Pamlico and the 
Neuse ; to the north they reached the River Elizabeth, 
which joins the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads ; 
in the interior the Chowan had been examined beyond 
the junction of the Meherrin and the Nottoway ; and 
we have seen that the hope of gold attracted Lane to 
make a short excursion up the Roanoke. Yet some 



186 THE UNITED STATES. 

general results of importance were obtained. The 
climate was found to be salubrious ; during the year 
not more than four men had died, and of these three 
brought the seeds of their disease from Europe. The 
hope of finding better harbours at the north was 
confirmed; and the Bay of Chesapeake, though so 
long since discovered by the Spanish, was first made 
known to the English by this expedition. 

" But in the Island of Roanoke the men began to 
despond ; they looked in vain towards the ocean for 
supphes from England ; they were sighing for their 
native land, when early in June it was rumoured that 
the sea was white with the sails of three-and-twenty 
ships, and within three days Sir Francis Drake 
anchored his fleet outside of Roanoke Inlet, in ' the 
wild road of their bad harbour.' 

" He had come, on his way from the West Indies to 
England, to visit the domain of his friend, and readily 
supplied the wants of Lane to the uttermost, giving 
him a barque of seventy tons, with pinnaces and small 
boats, and all needed provisions for the colony. Above 
all, he induced two experienced sea captains to remain 
and employ themselves in the action of discovery. 
Everything was furnished to complete the surveys 
along the coast and the rivers, and in the last resort, 
if suffering became extreme, to convey the emigrants 
to England. 

"At this time an unwonted storm suddenly arose, 
and had nearly wrecked the fleet, which lay in a most 
dangerous position, and which had no security but in 
weighing anchor and standing away from the shore. 
When the tempest was over, nothing could be found 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DKAKE. 187 

of the boats and the barque which had been set apart 
for the colony. The humanity of Drake was not weary ; 
he devised measures for supplying the colony with the 
means of continuing their discoveries ; but Lane shared 
the despondency of his men ; and Drake yielded to 
their unanimous desire of permission to embark in his 
ships for England. Thus ended the first actual settle- 
ment of the English in America." 

It was Hariot who first spoke in his description of 
the colony of the herb " called by the inhabitants 
yppoiDOC^'' which was brought to England and consumed 
under the name of tobacco. Raleigh himself took 
kindly to the new luxury, and would enjoy it in pipes 
of silver, the Queen sitting by him while he smoked. 

Soon after Lane and his friends set sail for England, 
Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three ships and 
plenty of provisions ; but not finding any of the colonists 
on Roanoke Island, he left fifteen men on the island, 
well provisioned, to hold possession of it. 

Still declining to be discouraged by outward events, 
in May, L587, Raleigh sent out three fresh ships under 
Captain John White, with one hundred and fifty colonists, 
seventeen of whom were women. Simon Ferdinando 
was admiral. The two officers were utterly out of har- 
mony with each other, and White accused Ferdinando 
of wishing to ruin the expedition. The admiral was a 
violent and passionate man, and greatly addicted to 
profane swearing. White alleged, moreover, that he 
left one of the vessels at a port in the West Indies, 
stealing away in the night in his own ship, and hoping 
that the captain of the vessel left behind would fail 
to reach Virginia, or that he would be taken by the 



188 THE UNITED STATES. 

Spaniards. " It was White's intention," observes one 
writer, " to go up the Chesapeake Bay, in accordance 
with Sir Walter Raleigh's orders, to find a seat for his 
colony, after looking on Roanoke Island for the fifteen 
men whom Grenville had left there the year before. 
But when Ferdinando had got forty of the colonists on 
board the pinnace at Hatorask to go to the island, 
he ordered the sailors not to bring them back again, 
declaring that the summer was too far gone to admit 
of time being spent in seeking for the best spot for a 
settlement. The two men were governed by different 
motives : one was for delay, the other for speed ; the 
governor wanted time to move with caution and con- 
sider consequences ; the sailor wanted to reach his port 
and discharge his cargo, looking forward to some new 
venture — probably some homeward-bound Spaniard 
laden with treasure. 

" The fifteen men whom Grenville had left at 
Roanoke were not to be found. The fort was razed 
to the ground ; the huts were standing, but they were 
overgrown with melon-vines, and the deer roamed 
through them undisturbed by any fear of human 
presence. The whitening bones of one man were the 
only sign of recent habitation. All that White could 
learn of the fate of his countrymen was that they had 
been attacked by the Indians, two of them killed, 
and the rest driven to a little island in the harbour 
of Hatorask. They could be traced no farther. 

" The fleet remained a little more than a month, 
but before it sailed the enmity between the English- 
men and the Indians was renewed with fresh fury. 
One of the assistants, Mr. Howe, while searching 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 189 

alone for shell-fish along the beach of Roanoke Island, 
was killed by some of the tribe of which Pemissippan 
had been chief. To avenge his death an attack was 
made before daylight upon an encampment of Indians, 
who, after one of them was killed, were found to be 
friends from Croatoan, where Mauteo's people lived. 
The effect upon the Croatoans of this unhappy blunder 
was probably not favourable to their continued friend- 
ship, though they may have been appeased for the 
moment by the subsequent christening of Manteo, 
who, by Sir Walter Raleigh's order, was, in reward 
for his faithfulness to the English, baptized with due 
ceremony under the name of Lord of Roanoke and 
Dasamomquepeuk. Before the fleet sailed, also, the 
daughter of White, the wife of Ananias Dare, one of 
the assistants, gave birth, on the 18th of August, to a 
daughter, who was christened Virginia — the first child 
of English parentage born upon the territory of the 
present United States." 

Being anxious to return to England, White left the 
colony on the 27th of August, 1587, ostensibly to fetch 
supplies. Certainly, when he arrived in England, he 
found it impossible to return at once to Virginia, 
however anxious he might be to do so, for the country 
was agitated from end to end over the threatened 
Spanish invasion. When the Invincible Armada 
appeared in sight, Raleigh was engaged in superintend- 
ing the coast defence. His vessels scoured the seas 
in privateering enterprises, which at once gratified his 
deep hatred of Spain, and provided the golden sinews 
of war for his schemes in Virginia. In 1589 we find 
him in Ireland, deep in his friendship with the poet 



190 THE UNITED STATES. 

Spenser, and planting tobacco on his Youglial estate, 
as well as the first potatoes that grew on Irish soil. 

Matters having at length calmed down in England, 
White succeeded in 1590 in his efibrts to make the 
return voyage to his colony. Hearing that three 
vessels had been prevented by an Order in Council 
from proceeding to the West Indies, White, through 
the influence of Raleigh, procured their release on con- 
dition that they should carry a reasonable number of 
persons and laud them in Virginia. In the end, how- 
ever, they conveyed only White himself, with whom 
they arrived at Wocoken on the 9th of August. A 
few days later the ships anchored in Hatorask harbour ; 
and when White saw smoke arising in the direction 
of Roanoke Island, he thought to find the colonists 
there. Neither men nor habitations were, however, dis- 
covered. What followed is thus related by the authors 
of The Popular History of the United States : 

" A disaster well-nigh put an end to all further 
attempts to reach Roanoke. The boats were sent 
ashore at Hatorask for water -, the surf was heavy in 
the inlet ; one of the boats was upset, and two of the 
captains of the ships and five others were drowned. 
So disheartened were the sailors at this mishap that 
they refused at first to go on, and this determination 
was with difficulty overcome by the will and authority 
of White and the remaining captain. It was night 
before they reached Roanoke, and approached the spot 
where White expected to find his friends. Glimmer- 
ing through the trees they saw the light of a fire, 
and for a moment their hopes were kindled into 
enthusiasm. Approaching it along the shore, the 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 191 

notes of a trnmpet-call from the boats rang clear and 
shrill through the silent woods ; the sailors sang out 
in cheering tones the familiar words of English songs, 
which would have so stirred the blood of any listening 
Euglishmen long exiled from home. But there was 
no answer. The lights of the distant fire still flickered 
above the dim line of the forest ; but out of the 
darkness came no friendly shout of men, no woman's 
glad cry of joy and welcome. 

" They landed at daybreak ; the fire they had seen 
was from burning grass and rotting trees, kindled no 
doubt by the Indians, whose fresh footprints were 
found in the sand. Pushing through the woods to- 
ward the spot where White had left his colony three 
years before, they saw the letters C. R. 0. carved upon 
the trunk of a tree, upon the brow of a hill. Pausing 
to consider what this might mean, White remembered 
that when he left the colony it was proposed that the 
people should remove to the mainland, and that 
wherever they went the name of the place should be 
left behind them here upon trees or doorposts. It was 
further understood that, should any misfortune have 
overtaken them, they should carve beneath the name 
a cross. Here then was the guide, if C. R. 0. meant 
Croatoan, to the place whither the colony had removed, 
though it was to an outer island rather than to the main. 
But to the anxious father and governor there was this 
encouragement — the sign of the cross was wanting. 

" Again they pushed on, after a brief consultation 
upon the ' faire Romane letters curiously carved,' 
which White had thus explained. It was not far to 
the deserted post, still surrounded with its palisades. 



192 THE UNITED STATES. 

" Here all doubts were removed : at tlie entrance, 
npon one of the largest of the trees from which the 
bark had been stripped, was carved in capital letters 
the word Croatoan in full, and still without the cross. 
Within the palisades the houses were gone, but scat- 
tered about were bars of iron and pigs of lead, some 
large guns with their balls — ' fowlers ' and ' sacker 
shot,' they were called— and other things too heavy 
for a hasty removal, all overgrown with grass and 
weeds. In a trench not far off were found some chests 
where they had been buried by the colonists and 
dug up afterwards by the Indians ; among these were 
three belonging to White, but all had been rifled. 
Books were torn out of their covers, the frames of 
pictures and of maps were rotten with dampness, and 
a suit of armour was almost eaten up with rust. 
' Although it much grieved me,' says White, ' to 
see such spoyle of my goods, yet on the other side I 
greatly joyed that I had safely found a certaine token 
of their (the colonists) safe being at Croatoan, which 
is the place where Manteo was borne, and the savages 
of the island our friends.' 

" It was his only consolation — if he really believed 
that his friends, among whom was his daughter, had 
found any such refuge. The boats had hardly re- 
gained the ships at Hatorask when a gale of wind 
with a heavy sea set in, and in attempting to get 
under way one of the ships lost her anchors and was 
near going ashore. The water-casks, which had been 
taken to the land to be filled, could not be brought 
off; provisions were short, the sailors were despondent 
and impatient, and it was determined to abandon all 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 193 

attempts to go to Croatoan in further search of the 
colony, but to sail at once to the West Indies and 
recruit. White was only a passenger, and could 
probably do nothing to change this determination, 
though his friends, if still alive, were not many miles 
distant. He may, indeed, have been doubtful if they 
were still alive, for the ships on their arrival on the 
coast had stopped at Wocoken, had sailed along the 
shores of Croatoan, and anchored for a night off the 
north end of the island. Had there been any sur- 
vivors of the colonists there, they could hardly have 
failed, on the look-out as they would always have been 
for succour, to see the passing vessels, and have made 
their presence known by signals of some sort. Bat 
no signs had been seen of living men : no columns of 
smoke curled np above the trees ; no flags of distress 
were descried ; no friendly Indians beckoned them to 
land ; no sound of gun or shout broke the silence of 
the wilderness. At Roanoke alone, in the one word 
Croatoan carved upon the trees, and in the crumbling 
vestiges of the colony, half buried in the rank growth 
of two or three summers, were there any evidences 
that Englishmen had ever been there — tokens, also, 
that they had perished. 

" That such was White's conviction — that he believed 
his daughter and her children, and all the rest whom 
he had led to this distant land, had fallen victims to 
the vengeance of the natives — is the most charitable 
way of accounting for the readiness with which he 
seems to have acceded to the proposal to sail for the 
West Indies. It was, indeed, suggested that they 
should return to Virginia, after taking on board a 

13 



194 THE UNITED STATES. 

fresh stock of water and provisions ; but this cotild 
only have been a pretext ; for as Croatoan was directly 
in their course, a delay of half a day would have 
sufficed to ascertain whether there were any English- 
men alive upon the island. ' I leave off,' said 
White, in a letter to Hakluyt, narrating the details 
of this voyage — ' I leave off from prosecuting that 
whereunto I would to God my health were answerable 
to my will.' Others did not leave off, no doubt 
sincerely believing what with White may have been 
only a desperate hope, that the unhappy planters were 
not all exterminated. Sir Walter Raleigh seems never 
to have neglected any chance of finding his lost colony, 
but excuses were never wanting for not making a 
thorough search on the part of those whom he engaged 
to undertake it." 

But a great deal happened in England before another 
attempt could be made to find the lost colony. Raleigh 
fell into disgrace with his royal mistress over Bessie 
Throckmorton, one of her maids of honour, and spent 
four years in the Tower in consequence. On his 
release he married the fair Bessie. In February, 1595, 
he explored the coasts of Trinidad and sailed up the 
Orinoco, but no practical result followed. Some time 
later he despatched Captain Laurence Key mis to make 
further explorations, and still later one Captain Berry ; 
but Raleigh failed to rouse any great public interest 
in England by his splendid dreams of the golden 
treasures of Guiana. In June, 1596, he had the chief 
honours in the expedition of Howard and Essex to 
Cadiz, when the naval strength of Spain was once 
more shattered. He also was concerned in several 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE, 195 

other adventures before the ccntnry closed, which 
proved his indomitable spirit and valour. 

In 1602 Raleigh again returned to the question of 
his colony, and bought a vessel, which he manned 
in order to send out there. The command was given 
to Samuel Mace, a capable mariner, who had twice 
already visited Virginia. But Mace, though able 
enough, was not honest of purpose, and he spent 
a month on the coast, forty leagues south-west of 
Hatteras, trafficking with the Indians, and making no 
attempt to reach Croatoan. This was the last direct 
effort made by Raleigh to recover his lost colony in 
Virginia, a scheme which altogether involved him in 
an expenditure of upwards of £40,000. 

The report gained currency that the colonists were 
all massacred soon after White left in the first instance ; 
but considerable doubt has been thrown upon this. 
William Strachey, the first secretary of the colony at 
Jamestown, in his work on Virginia, stated that a 
chief of the Upper Potomac had preserved seven 
English settlers alive — namely, four men, two boys, 
and a young maid. Captain John Smith also, in his 
references to the Indian emperor Powhatan, would 
seem to imply that some of the colonists had been 
spared. Raleigh himself showed by his letters that 
he believed many of the colonists escaped death. His 
nephew, Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, went out to 
Virginia on an exploring expedition, but he and some 
of his companions were slain by the Indians. 

There was something prophetic in Raleigh's faith 
in the future of Anglo-Saxon America. In a letter to 
Cecil he used these remarkable words : " I shall yet 



196 THE UNITED STATES. 

live to see it an English nation." But although the 
prophecy was not fulfilled in its exactitude, after a lapse 
of nearly two centuries the State of North Carolina, 
in 1792, revived, in its capital, '^ the city of Raleigh," 
in grateful commemoration of his name and fame. 
Raleigh's Virginia patent expired by his attainder, and 
in 1618 he was sent to the block on a charge of high 
treason. His execution on insufficient grounds will 
always remain a dark blot on the character of James I. 

Mention must here be made of John Oxenham, a 
young Devonshire adventurer, who in 1575 undertook 
a voyage in a single ship to the Isthmus of Darien. 
He crossed over in a pinnace to Panama and the Pearl 
Islands, and intended proceeding to the north, when 
he was seized by the Spaniards, conveyed to Lima, 
and there executed as a pirate. 

Sir Francis Drake, " the first who ploughed a furrow 
round the world," and who is frequently spoken of as 
the greatest of the Elizabethan seamen, now demands 
attention. He was born near Tavistock, of humble 
parents, about the year 1540. After fulfilling his 
apprenticeship with the master of a small sailing 
vessel, he followed the coasting trade for some years. 
But by 1565 he was voyaging to Guinea and the 
Spanish Main. In 1567 he commanded the Judith in 
his kinsman John Hawkins's ill-fated expedition to 
the West Indies. In 1570, and again in 1571, he 
made voyages to the West Indies, with a view of 
discovering how he could make good his previous 
losses sustained at the hands of the Spaniards. 

" The great experience he must thus have gained," 
remarks his biographer Barrow, " would not suffer 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 197 

him to rest in idleuess ; and in May, 1572, he had 
provided two small ships, the Pacha, of seventy tons, 
and the Siuan, of twenty-five tons — the latter com- 
manded by his brother John — all ready for sea, and 
sailed on the 24th of that month for Nombre de Dios. 
Here he landed with his handful of men, dismounted 
the guns on the platform and marched to the market- 
place, while the alarm-bells were ringing and drums 
beating. They were attacked, and Drake received a 
wound, which he concealed, knowing that, 'if the 
general's heart stoops, the men's will fail.' He ordered 
one of his trusty followers, Oxenham, and his brother, 
with sixteen men, to proceed to the king's treasure- 
house, where vast piles of silver were found, and still 
more in the governor's house : he then told his people 
* that he had brought them to the mouth of the 
treasury of the world, which, if they did not gain, 
none but themselves were to be blamed.' 

" Here, however, his strength and sight and speech 
failed him, from loss of blood ; his men bound up 
the wound with his scarf, and by main force (having 
refused their entreaties) carried him to his pinnace. 
On recovering, he speedily decided on crossing the 
Isthmus of Panama ; but having lost many of his 
men by sickness, and among them his brother Joseph, 
and also the other brother John, who was unfortunately 
killed in action with a Spanish ship, he removed the 
whole of the people into his own ship and pinnace, 
and sank the Swan. His object on the isthmus was 
to intercept a recoe, or train of mules, laden with the 
king's treasure. He met them, attacked and chased 
the party as far as Vera Cruz, strictly charging all 



198 , THE UNITED STATES. 

his company on no account to hurt any female or 
unarmed man. This journey decided the future fate 
of Drake. He was led to a tree — ' a goodlie and great 
high tree ' — and from it had a full view of that sea 
of which he had heard such golden reports, and with 
great solemnity * besought God to give him life and 
leave once to sail an English ship in those seas.' 

" Having so far gratified his curiosity, and intercepted 
a party of mules laden with treasure, and stripped 
them of as much as was convenient to carry away, he 
returned to his ship and made sail for England, where 
he arrived, at Plymouth, on Sunday, the 9th of August, 
1673, during divine service, when all the people in 
crowds ran out of the church, in the midst of the sermon, 
'■ to witness the blessing of God on the dangerous 
adventures and enterprises of Captain Drake.' " 

His next great enterprise, the voyage round the 
world, was unexampled for its daring and enterprise. 
Procuring an audience of the Queen, in 1.577, he laid 
before her his scheme, the first of the kind which 
any Englishman had thought of, and she gave her 
sanction to his fitting out an expedition. The 
squadron, as completed, consisted of the Pelican, 
100 tons, Drake, commander ; the Elizabeth, 80 tons, 
John Winter, commander ; the Marigold, 30 tons, 
John Thomas ; the Swa?i, fly-boat, 50 tons, John 
Chester ; the Christopher, pinnace, 15 tons, Thomas 
Moone, the whole manned with one hundred and sixty- 
three stout and able seamen. 

The vessels sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of 
December, 1577. They had not been long at sea 
before they captured a Portuguese vessel, over which 



THE EXrEDITlONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 199 

Drake placed one Thomas Doughty, a volunteer gentle- 
man, as commander. Doughty endeavoured to get 
the whole expedition into his own hands, and he 
was accordingly tried and executed at Port St. Julian 
for his attempts to stir up a mutiny. The squadron, 
now reduced to three ships by the burning of two, 
entered the Strait of Magellan — this being the first 
time any Englishman had done so, or indeed any one 
else except Magellan himself. Drake changed his 
own ship's name at this juncture from the Pelican 
to the Golden Hind. The passage through the strait 
occupied sixteen days. Violent tempests followed, 
when they reached the open sea, and the storms 
lasted for fifty-two days, during which the Marigold 
foundered with all hands. 

" On the 7th of October," says Barrow, '' the 
Admiral (which was the vessel captured early from 
the Portuguese) and the Elizabeth under slow sail 
stood into a bay near the western entrance of the 
strait, where they hoped to have found shelter from 
the bad weather ; but in a few hours after coming 
to an anchor, the cable of the Admiral parted, and 
she drove out to sea, and was thus separated from 
the Elizabeth, which remained in the port without 
making any attempt to follow her. The account 
given by Cliff'e, one of the crew of the Elizabeth, is 
that Winter the next day, after having been in great 
danger among the rocks, re-entered the strait, and, 
anchoring in an open bay, made great fires on the 
shore in the hope that Drake might see them ; that 
he remained there ten days, then went farther, and 
stayed for three weeks in a sound which he named 



200 THE UNITED STATES. 

' The Port of Health ' ; and that then, being in 
despair both as to Drake's existence and as to favour- 
able winds for Peru, he 'gave over the voyage, full 
sore against the mariners' minds.' Winter arrived 
safe in England, but he was censured by many for 
having abandoned his commander. 

"The general being now left with only the little 
pinnace, was driven back once more into the latitude 
of 55° south, in which he got among some islands, 
perhaps some of those to the north of Terra del 
Fuego, where the ship was anchored, and the crew 
were refreshed with wholesome herbs and good water. 
After two days, however, they were driven from 
their anchorage, and the little shallop or pinnace 
lost sight of the ship, nor did it ever again rejoin 
her. There were eight men in her, who had pro- 
visions only for one day ; they, however, reached the 
shore, procured water and roots, and in the course 
of a fortnight entered the Strait of Magelhaens. 
Here they salted and dried penguins, and proceeded 
to Port Julian, and thence to Rio de la Plata. There 
six of the party went into the woods to seek for food. 
A party of Indians met them, wounded them all with 
their arrows, and took four of them prisoners : the 
other two escaped to their companions who had re- 
mained in the boat. They moved to an island two 
or three leagues from the shore, where the two 
wounded men died : the shallop was dashed in pieces 
against the rocks. The remaining two, Peter Curder 
and William Pitcher, stayed on this island two 
months, subsisting on small crabs, eels, and a fruit 
like an orange ; but they had no water. The misery 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 201 

they endured for want of this indispensable necessary 
of life induced them to endeavour, by means of a 
plank and a couple of paddles, to reach the mainland. 
This they accomplished in three days and two nights, 
and found a rivulet of sweet water — ' where,' says 
Curder, ' Pitcher, my only comfort and companion 
(although I endeavoured to dissuade him), being 
pinched with extreme thirst, over-drank himself ; 
•end, to my unspeakable grief, died within half an 
hour, whom I buried as well as I could in the sand.' 

" Curder, the only survivor of the party, was kindly 
treated by some Indians, and at the end of nine years 
returned to England. The Golden Hind was now 
left completely alone, and with a reduced crew. Another 
storm arose, and the vessel was driven to the very 
southern extremity of the American Continent, and 
thus Drake was the first to discover Cape Horn." 

The storm abated on the 30th of October, and Drake 
then proceeded to the northward, towards the place 
appointed for the rendezvous of his squadron, 30° 
south ; but no vessels could be found. Coasting along 
till he came to 38°, he landed on the Island of JVIacho, 
where he obtained supplies from the natives, who were 
apparently friendly. On the second day, however, the 
Indians mustered in force, and killed and wounded a 
great many Englishmen, Drake himself being wounded 
in the face by an arrow, which pierced almost to the 
brain ; and he also received a wound in the head. 

On the 30th of November Drake dropped anchor in 
a bay called St. Philip, and brought away an Indian 
they had fallen in with. The general obtained plenty 
of stores, and afterwards seized a Spanish ship, richly 



202 THE UNITED STATES. 

laden, and then dismissed the Indian, rewarding him 
amply for his good services. On the 19th of December 
Drake entered a bay near a town named Cyppo, where 
he was greeted by a number of Spaniards and Indians. 
They were very hostile, and the English retired to 
their vessel — all except one, who was killed and 
fearfully mutilated. They next landed at Tarapaca, 
in about 20° S. lat. 

" Coasting along, still in the hope of meeting with 
his friends, Drake arrived, on the 7th of February, 
before Arica, where he took two barques, on board of 
one of which was about eight hundredweight of silver. 
On the 15th he arrived at Callao, the port of Lima, 
and entered the harbour without resistance, though 
about thirty ships were lying there, seventeen of which 
were prepared for their voyage. Whether these ships 
were manned and armed, or what was their size, is 
not stated ; but it appears most strange that Drake, 
with his single ship, should have been able to strike 
such dismay into the Spaniards that they suffered the 
plunder of their seventeen loaded ships to be carried 
on without the least attempt at resistance. 

" In one of these ships they found fifteen hundred 
bars of silver ; in another, a large chest of coined 
money ; and valuable lading in the rest, from all of 
which they leisurely selected what they pleased ; and 
had they been so disposed, they might have set fire 
to the whole of the ships ; but Drake was satisfied in 
obtaining booty for himself and his crew, in compensa- 
tion for the former wrongs he had received from the 
Spanish people. The general, however, in order to 
secure himself against an immediate pursuit, ordered 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 203 

the cables of the ships to be cut, and let them drive. 
He had here received intelligence of a very rich ship, 
that was laden with gold and silver, and had sailed 
from hence just before his arrival, bound for Panama. 
Her name was the CacafuegOy and she was termed 
' the great glory of the South Sea.' As he was in 
full chase of this vessel he fell in with and boarded a 
brigantine, out of which he took eighty pounds' weight 
of gold, a crucifix of the same metal, and some 
emeralds. In a few days after, near Cape St. Francis, 
in 1° lat., he got sight of the Cacafuego, about one 
hundred and fifty leagues from Panama. On coming 
up with her, a shot or two carried away one of her 
masts, when she was boarded and easily carried. Be- 
sides a large quantity of pearls and precious stones, 
they took out of her eighty pounds' weight of gold, 
thirteen chests of coined silver, and rough silver enough 
to ballast a ship. Having transferred all this to the 
Golden Hind, the total amount of which was cal- 
culated at three hundred and sixty thousand pieces 
of eight, or nearly £90,000, they let the Caca- 
fuego go. Standing out to the westward to avoid 
Panama, where probably they considered that they 
were too well known, they fell in with another ship, 
from which they obtained some linen, cloth, jjorcelain, 
dishes, and silk. The owner of this ship, a Spanish 
gentleman, was on board her, from whom Drake is 
said to have received a falcon, wrought in pure gold, 
with a large emerald set in its breast ; but whether 
by seizure, by purchase, or as a present is not men- 
tioned. After taking out the pilot for his own service, 
he suffered the ship to proceed on her voyage. He 



204 THE UNITED STATES. 

now continued his course ; and keeping close to the 
coast of North America, on the 1 5th of April came to 
the port of Agnapulca, in latitude about 15° 30' N. 
Having here taken in some bread and other provisions, 
he prepared to depart northwards ; but, as the narra- 
tive says, ' not forgetting, before we got a shijjboard, 
to take us also a certain pot (of about a bashell in 
bignesse) full of ryalls of plate, which we found in the 
towne, together with a chaine of gold, and some other 
jewels, which we entreated a gentleman Spaniard to 
leave behind him, as he was flying out of the towne.' 

" At this place the admiral set on shore Nuna de 
Silva, the Portuguese pilot, whom he had taken from 
the Cape de Verde Islands, and who, on his arrival 
at Mexico, gave to the governor a narrative of all the 
circumstances that had happened on the voyage, which 
was correct in most particulars ; and it was published 
by Hakluyt." 

Drake made a complete refit of his little barque at 
Aguapulca, and then boldly resolved to try to reach 
home by way of the north-east. He failed like Cook 
and many of Cook's successors, and the dream of 
navigators still remains to be realized. Drake skirted 
the north-western shores of America, where the people 
regarded him and his companions as gods. On the 
17th of June they entered a convenient harbour in 
lat. 38° 30' N., the land being inhabited, and the 
houses of the natives close to the water's edge. The 
Golden Hind having sprung a leak, she was now put 
to rights. A great multitude of natives came down 
from the country, headed by the king. They indulged 
in singing and dancing, and during the festitives the 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 205 

king placed a feathered cap of network on the 
general's head and a chain round his neck, and sainted 
him by the name of Hioh — that is, king or chief. 
Drake took this to mean the submission of themselves 
and the whole country to the new-comers ; and he 
gave them to understand, in the best way he was able, 
that he accepted them in the name, and for the use 
of, the Queen of England. 

The natives certainly regarded the English with 
great favour. Hitherto, this part of the American 
Continent had been visited by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, 
and by no other European. His intercourse with the 
natives was of the most friendly kind, and the favour- 
able disposition of the latter towards Europeans 
Drake strengthened and confirmed by his friendly and 
humane treatment of them. Before he left, Drake 
caused a post to be set up on shore, as a monument, 
and it bore a brass plate, on which was engraved the 
Queen's name, as well as the assertion of her right 
and title, and that of her successors, to the new 
kingdom. Record was also made of "the day and 
year of our arrival there, and of the free giving up of 
the province and kingdom, both by the king and 
people, into her Majesty's hands ; together with her 
Highness's picture and arms in a piece of sixpence, 
current English money, showing itself by a hole made 
of purpose through the plate : underneath was like- 
wise engraven the name of our general, etc." 

In order to show respect to his native land, and 
because white cliffs were observed on the coast, Drake 
gave to all the land he had seen in this part of 
America the name of New Albion. After remaining 



206 THE UNITED STATES. 

tliirty-six days in port, Drake and his companions left, 
to the deep regret of the friendly natives, who expressed 
a wish for their speedy return. Admiral Barney con- 
sidered that the port of Drake was that which is now 
known by the name of Port San Francisco, the lati- 
tude of which is 37° 48|' N. " Allowing them to be 
the same," he continues, " it is remarkable that both 
the most northern and the most southern ports at 
which Drake anchored in the course of his voyage 
should afterwards by the Spaniards — doubtless without 
any intended reference to the name of Francis Drake 
—be named San Francisco T Thus, as it has been 
observed by another writer, this portion of the west 
coast of America was discovered, and taken possession 
of in the usual manner, by an Englishman, in the 
name of his sovereign, full two hundred years before 
the United States of America came into existence 
as such. 

The Golden Hind left the American coast on the 
23rd of July, and Drake resolved to return home by 
crossing the Pacific. He consequently directed his 
course towards the Philippine Islands. For the long 
period of sixty-eight days the expedition was without 
sight of any land, but " on the 30th of September it 
fell in with certain islands lying in about 8° to the 
northward of the Line. The natives came off in their 
canoes, each hollowed out of a single tree, bringing 
cocoanuts, fruits, and fish. The first that came 
appeared to be well disposed, but others acted dis- 
honestly, carrying off whatever articles were once put 
into their hands. The English therefore would have 
nothing to do with them in the way of trade . on which, 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 207 

to manifest their resentment, tliey began to attack 
tlie ship with stones, with which they had provided 
themselves. A gun was fired over their heads, the 
noise of which frightened them ; but none being hnrt, 
they returned, and were more insolent than before. 
The patience of Drake was now exhausted, and he 
ordered some muskets to be fired at them ; for they 
could not be got rid of till they were made to feel 
some smart as well as terror. Drake gave these islands 
the name of the Islands of Thieves. Admiral Burney 
thinks, from the description of the natives, the time 
of the passage to them, and the latitude, that they are 
the islands which in our time have been called the 
Pelew Islands. 

" Leaving these islands, they sailed westerly, from 
the 3rd to the 16th of October, without seeing any 
land till they made the Philippine Islands, and coasted 
them until the 21st, when they anchored and watered 
the ship at the largest of the group, called Mindanao ; 
and sailing thence about eight leagues, they passed 
between two islands south of Mindanao, and on the 
3rd of November had sight of the Moluccas, and steered 
for Tidore ; but having received information that the 
Portuguese had been driven out of Ternate, and had 
taken up their quarters at Tidore, Drake determined 
to proceed to the former place. 

" On anchoring at this city, the capital of the 
Moluccas, Drake sent a messenger with a velvet cloak 
to the king, with a request to be supplied with pro- 
visions and allowed to purchase various kinds of spices. 
The king himself came off to the ship, preceded by 
three large and magnificent canoes, each having eighty 



208 THE UNITED STATES. 

rowers, who paddled to the sound of brass cymbals. 
On each side of these canoes was a row of soldiers, 
every one having a sword, dagger, and target ; and in 
each there was also a small piece of ordnance mounted 
on a stock. Drake received the king in great state, 
himself and all his officers being dressed in their richest 
clothes, guns firing, and trumpets sounding. The king 
was a tall, corpulent man, with a good countenance. 
His attendants showed him great respect, speaking to 
him only in a kneeling posture. 

" On taking leave, he promised to visit the general 
on the following day, so that the ship should be sup- 
plied with provisions. Abundance of rice, fruits, and 
poultry were sent off, together with a small quantity 
of cloves. The king, however, instead of visiting 
them as he had promised, sent his brother with an 
excuse and an invitation to the general to land. This 
Drake declined; but some of his officers waited on the 
king, the brother being detained on board as a pledge 
for their safety. The king, who was covered with a 
profusion of gold ornaments and jewels, received them 
with much parade." 

Drake won golden opinions from all with whom he 
had to deal here ; and having duly furnished his 
ship with provisions, he sailed from the capital of 
the Moluccas on the 9th of November. The passage 
home was a lengthy one. He was compelled to make 
a thorough refit on the south-west coast of Java, after 
which he held for the Cape of Good Hope, and landed 
in England on the 26th of September, 1580. For 
some time he was deprived of his justly earned honours 
by Spanish protests ; but at length, on the 4th of 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 209 

April, Elizabeth visited his ship at Deptford, aud 
knighted him on its deck. 

Four years later, or a little more, Drake sailed with 
a fleet of twenty-five ships for the Spanish Indies. 
He harassed Hispaniola, Cartagena, and the coast of 
Florida; and after terrible losses from illness, brought 
home the hundred and ninety dispirited colonists whom 
he found in Virginia, together with cargoes of tobacco 
and potatoes. This expedition was far inferior, both 
in interest and profit, to his former enterprises. 

Spain and the Azores were the next objects of his 
exploits — but, indeed, as he said, he was ready to go 
anywhere " to seek God's enemies and her Majesty's 
wherever they may be found." In the destruction of the 
Spanish Armada, Drake's splendid seamanship and his 
indomitable courage covered him with fresh glory, and 
made his name one of terror for the Spaniards. 

A few peaceful years ensued after this, and then, 
finally, in August, 1595, Drake sailed on his last 
voyage to the West Indies. Misfortunes crowded 
upon him, including the death of Hawkins, his second 
in command, and at last the gallant Drake himself 
fell ill of dysentery, and died off Porto Bello on the 
28th of January, 1596. The sea received him, for his 
body was put into a leaden coffin and committed to 
the deep. But although the element in which he 
was always so much at home was now his tomb, " the 
ocean sea was not sufficient room for his fame," as an 
unknown poet finely wrote. 



14 



CHAPTER IX. 

OPERATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 

THE history of Virginia is probably more full of 
romance than that of any other State of the 
American Union, and it was in this State that the 
first permanent colony was established by English 
settlers. It almost lost this distinction, however, 
owing to the exploits of one Bartholomew Gosnold, 
whose career we must first glance at, and who nearly 
secured for New England the honour of being the first 
lasting English colony. 

Gosnold had already made a voyage to Virginia, 
when he was commissioned to go out to America 
again by the Earl of Southampton. He sailed from 
Falmouth on the 25th of March, 1602, in a small 
vessel called the Concord^ having as his second in 
command Bartholomew Gilbert. He had with him 
thirty-two persons, of whom twenty were to remain 
and found a colony somewhere on the northern coast 
of Virginia, as the whole country was then called, 
from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of 
latitude. Gosnold's idea was to proceed by a direct 
north-west course, thus avoiding the usual circuitous 
route by the Canaries and the West India Islands ; 
but he was driven by contrary winds southward to 
the Azores, and thence he steered almost due west, 

210 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 211 

arriving in seven weeks at Cape Elizabeth, on the 
coast of Maine. " Following the coast to the south- 
west, he skirted ' an outpoint of wooded laud,' and 
about noon of the 14th of May he anchored ' near 
savage rock ' to the east of York Harbour. There he 
met a Biscay shalloj), and there he was visited by 
natives. Not finding his ' purposed place,' he stood 
to the south, and on the morning of the 15th dis- 
covered the promontory which he named Cape Cod. 
He and four of his men went on shore. Cape Cod 
was the first spot in New England ever trod hy 
Englishmen, while as yet there was not one European 
family on the continent from Florida to Hudson's Bay. 
Doubling the cape, and passing Nantucket, they 
touched at No Man's Land, passed round the pro- 
montory of Gay Head, naming it Dover Cliff, and 
entered Buzzard's Bay, a stately sound, which they 
called Gosnold's Hope. The westernmost of the 
islands was named Elizabeth, from the Queen — a 
name which has been transferred to the group. Here 
they beheld the rank vegetation of a virgin soil : 
noble forests ; wild fruits and flowers bursting from 
the earth ; the eglantine, the thorn, and the honey- 
suckle, the wild pea, the tansy, and young sassafras ; 
strawberries, raspberries, grape-vines, — all in profusion. 
Within a pond upon the island lies a rocky islet ; on 
this the adventurers built their storehouse and their 
fort ; and the foundations of the first New England 
colony were laid. The island, the pond, the islet, are 
yet visible ; the shrubs are luxuriant as of old ; but 
the forests are gone, and the ruins of the fort can no 
longer be discerned. 



212 THE UNITED STATES. 

"A traffic with the natives on the main enabled 
Gosnold to lade the Concord with sassafras root, then ■ 
esteemed in pharmacy as a sovereign panacea. The 
band, which was to have nestled on the Elizabeth 
Islands, finding their friends about to embark for 
Enrope, despaired of supplies of food, and determined 
not to remain. Fear of the Indians, who had ceased 
to be friendly, the want of provisions, and jealousy 
respecting the distribution of the risks and profits 
defeated the design. The party soon set sail, and 
bore for England, leaving not so much as one European 
family between Florida and Labrador. The return 
voyage lasted but five weeks ; and the expedition was 
completed in less than four months, during which 
entire health had prevailed." 

The favourable reports which Gosnold gave of the 
regions visited induced the merchants of Bristol — at 
the instance of Richard Hakluyt, the historian of 
these discoveries, and with the cordial assent of 
Raleigh — to pursue the work of exploration. Accord- 
ingly, Martin Pring, who was with Gosnold on the 
Concord, was given the command of the Speedwell, 
a ship of fifty tons and thirty men, and the Discoverer, 
a barque of twenty- six tons and thirteen men ; and 
he set sail for America on the 10th of April, 1603. 
The vessels were well provided with articles to please 
the natives, and the voyage was successful. The 
little expedition " reached the American coast among 
the islands of Penobscot Bay. Coasting towards the 
west, Pring made a discovery of many of the harbours 
of Maine ; of the Saco, the Kennebunk, and the York 
Rivers ; and the channel of the Piscataqna was 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 213 

examined for three or four leagues. Finding no 
sassafras, he steered to the south, doubled Cape Ann, 
and went on shore in Massachusetts ; but being still 
unsuccessful, he again pursued a southerly track, till 
he anchored in Old Town Harbour, on Martha's Vine- 
yard. Here obtaining a freight, he returned to 
England, after an absence of about six months, which 
had been free from disaster or danger. 

"The testimony of Pring having confirmed the report 
of Gosnold, an expedition, promoted by the Earl of 
Southampton and his brother-in-law Lord Arundel 
of Wardour, was confided to George Waymouth, a 
careful and vigilant commander, who, in attempting 
a north-west passage, had already explored the coast 
of Labrador. Weighing anchor on Easter Sunday, on 
the 14th of May, 1605, he came near the whitish, sandy 
promontory of Cape Cod. To escape the continual 
shoals in which he found himself embayed, he stood 
out to sea, then turned to the north, and on the 
17th anchored to the north of Monhegan Island, 
in sight of hills to the north-north-west on the 
main. On Whit-Sunday he found his way among 
the St. George's Islands into an excellent harbour, 
which was accessible by four passages, defended from 
all winds, and had good mooring upon a clay ooze, 
and even upon the rocks by the cliff side. The climate 
was agreeable ; the sea yielded fish of many kinds 
profusely; the tall and great trees on the islands 
were much observed ; and the gum of the silver fir 
was thought to be as fragrant as frankincense ; some 
trade was carried on with the natives for sables, and 
skins of deer and otter and beaver ; the land was of 



214 THE UNITED STATES. 

such pleasantness that many of the company wished 
themselves settled there. 

''Having in the last of May discovered in his pinnace 
the broad, deep current of the St. George's, on the 
11th of June Waymouth passed with a gentle wind 
up with the ship into that river for about eighteen 
miles, which were reckoned at six-and-twenty, and 
' all consented in joy ' to admire its width of a half- 
mile or a mile; its verdant banks; its gallant and 
spacious coves ; the strength of its tide, which may 
have risen nine or ten feet, and was set down at 
eighteen or twenty. 

"On the 13th he ascended in a row-boat ten 
miles farther, and the discoverers were more and 
more pleased with the beauty of the fertile bordering 
ground. No token was found that ever any Christian 
had been there before ; and at the point where the 
river trends westward into the main, he set up a 
memorial cross, as he had already done on the rocky 
shore of the St. George's Islands. Well satisfied with 
his discoveries, on Sunday, the 16th of June, he 
sailed for England, taking with him five of the natives 
whom he had decoyed, to be instructed in English, 
and to serve as guides to some future expedition. At 
his coming into the harbour of Plymouth, he yielded 
up three of the natives to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the 
governor of that town, whose curiosity was thus 
directed to the shores of Maine." 

It was by voyages like these that the way was 
paved for the colonization of the United States. The 
great work of the Virginia Companies was begun 
in 1606^ when James I., delighted at the idea of 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 215 

extending his territories, granted the first patent for 
a colony to Edward Maria Wingfield, a merchant of 
the West of England; Robert Hunt, a clergyman 
of worth and fortitude ; John Smith, an adventurer 
of the first order and the finest qualities ; Richard 
Halduyt ; Sir George Somers ; and others who should 
be joined to them. The patent was dated the 10th of 
April, 1606. 

All the territories on the American coast, between 
34° and 45° of north latitude, together with the islands 
within a hundred miles, were granted to the adven- 
turers. Two companies were to be formed, the first 
to be called the Southern Colony, and the second the 
Northern Colony. The jurisdiction of the former 
company— whose council was chiefly composed of 
residents of London, and therefore came to be known 
as the London Company— extended from Cape Fear 
to the southern limit of Maryland— that is, from 
34° to 38° ; and the jurisdiction of the other company 
—whose council was appointed from Plymouth and 
the vicinity, and therefore came to be known as the 
Plymouth Company— extended from 41° to 45°. The 
intermediate district, from 38° to 41°, was open to 
the competition of both companies. 

"Each colony was to be governed by a resident 
council of thirteen, to be appointed by the King, with 
power to choose a president, who should not be a 
clergyman, from their own body, and to fill any 
vacancies that should occur among themselves from 
death or resignation. The laws enacted by them were 
subject to revision either by the King or the Council 
in England. No part whatever in the government 



216 THE UNITED STATES. 

was given to the people ; even trial by jury was 
allowed only in cases of capital crimes, which were 
' tumults, rebellion, conspiracy, meetings, and sedition, 
together with murder, manslaughter, incest, rapes, 
and adultery.' Lesser crimes and misdemeanours 
were to be tried before the president and council, and 
punished according to their will. Real estate was to 
be held as under the laws of England, but for the 
first five years all personal property and the fruits of 
the labours of the colonists were to be held as a 
common stock, and each member of the community 
was to be supported from the general store. Religion 
was to be established in accordance with the rites and 
doctrines of the Church of Eugland ; the people were 
enjoined, by virtue of such penalties as the president 
and council should choose to inflict, to ' kindly treat 
the savage and heathen people in those parts, and use 
all proper means to draw them to the true service 
and knowledge of God,' and also to lead them to 
'■ good and sociable traffic' Such were the essential 
features of the first constitution of government estab- 
lished within the limits of the present United States. 
It was esj)ecially the work of that pedantic despot 
James I., who afterwards amused himself with drawing 
up a code of laws for the administration of a govern- 
ment where, in the last resort, all political power 
rested in his hands, and the hands of those of his 
appointment." 

The Plymouth Company sent out two ships in the 
summer of 1606 : one in May, commanded by Captain 
Pring; the other in August, commanded by Henry 
Chalong. Chalong was captured by the Spaniards, 



OPEKATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 217 

but Pring explored the coast of Maine, and brought 
home such a favourable report that in the following 
year Chief Justice Popham sent out an expedition 
under his brother George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, 
a son of Sir Humphrey, to settle a colony at the mouth 
of the Sagadahoc. As this attempt proved abortive, 
however, the honour of planting the first permanent 
colony was destined to accrue to the London Company 
in Virginia. 

This first important band of colonists numbered one 
hundred and five men, and among these there were 
only about twenty labourers and mechanics. No women 
went over. There were forty-eight gentlemen to four 
carpenters, although they were going to a region 
where there was not a house standing. The most 
notable members of the colony included Bartholomew 
Gosnold, and his companion in the Concord^ Gabriel 
Archer ; Edward Maria Wingfield, afterwards the 
first governor ; the Rev. Robert Hunt, the chaplain ; 
George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, 
who did excellent service; and the redoubtable Captain 
John Smith. 

As this last-named extraordinary man now comes 
into great prominence, and as his experiences are 
amongst the most romantic in the history of coloniza- 
tion, it will be convenient here to refer briefly to his 
early career. John Smith was born at Willoughby, 
in Lincolnshire, in 1580, and was educated at the 
schools of Alford and Louth. He wanted to go to sea 
on his father's death in 1596, but his guardian bound 
him apprentice to a merchant of Lynn. Business 
being obnoxious to him, he accompanied the second 



218 THE UNITED STATES. 

son of Lord Willoughby to France, and saw some 
soldiering at Havre. Afterwards lie went into the 
Low Countries, and thence crossed to Scotland, re- 
tnrning to Willoughby, where he lived in a wood, 
and studied Machiavelli and Marcus Aurelius, and 
exercised himself on a good horse with lance and ring. 
As the Turks were then ravaging Hungary, he decided 
to join the Christian army, and was plundered on the 
way thither by four French adventurers. He next 
joined himself with a piratical merchant, and acquired 
wealth by the capture of a Venetian argosy, while 
coasting round Italy and the north of Africa. He 
next entered the service of Ferdinand, Duke of Austria, 
under whom he greatly distinguished himself, and had 
some surprising adventures. Sold as a slave, and 
marched to Adrianople, he escaped and travelled 
through Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco. After 
a sea fight with two Spanish men-of-war, he returned 
to England in 1604, the richer by a thousand ducats. 

The London Company's scheme fell in with Smith's 
disposition admirably. The fleet sailed from Blackwall 
on the 19th of December, 1606. It was under the 
command of Captain Christopher Newport, and con- 
sisted of three vessels : the Sarah Coiistant, one hundred 
tons ; the God-speed, forty tons ; and the Discovery, 
pinnace, twenty tons. The instructions of the council 
were that the ships should seek for a safe port at the 
entrance of some navigable river ; and if more than 
one was discovered, that was to be preferred which 
mio:ht have two branches. Should either branch come 
from the north-west, then that was to be entered, as 
it might be the passage to the South Sea ; and the 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 219 

hope of finding this passage was never abandoned by 
the London Council so long as the company was in 
existence. 

During the voyage out dissensions arose among the 
adventurers, for James I. had foolishly directed that 
the papers appointing the authorities should not be 
opened till after the arrival in Virginia. John Smith 
especially appears to have excited jealousy, probably 
from his superior abilities, and he was charged with 
desiring to usurp the government and to assassinate 
the council. After a stormy passage, the expedition 
sailed into Chesapeake Bay on the 26th of April, 1607. 
Cape Henry and Cape Charles were named after the 
sous of the King. 

On the sealed box being opened at Cape Henry, it 
was ascertained that the council was to consist of 
Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward M. Wing- 
field, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John 
Martin, and George Kendall. Seventeen days were 
spent in searching for a suitable site for the colony ; 
and at length, on the 13th of May, the council decided 
upon the present site of Jamestown, so called after the 
King. It was situate on a peninsula about forty 
miles from the mouth of the Powhatan, which was 
called the King's River, and subsequently James 
River. 

The council appointed Wingfield president, and at 
first excluded Smith from their deliberations. Yet he 
was the man " without whose aid the vices of the 
colony would have caused its immediate ruin." Most 
of the colonists devoted themselves to felling timber 
and providing freight for the ships, while Captain 



220 THE UNITED STATES. 

Newport and Smith, with twenty others, ascended the 
James River to the falls. Here they came upon the 
native chief Powhatan, king of the tribes, whose city 
of wigwams lay just below the site of Richmond. 
The two explorers desired to visit the Blue Ridge 
Mountains ; but being dissuaded by Powhatan, they 
now turned back down the river. On reaching James- 
town, they learned that the Indians had attacked the 
camp during their absence, wounding several men. 

Matters were going very badly in the colony when 
Newport left it in June to return to England. Before 
the end of August fifty men had died of sickness and 
fatigue, including the worthy Bartholomew Gosnold, 
the projector of the colony. Disunion set in amongst 
the rest, and the president, Wingfield, was deposed 
on the ground of appropriating public stores and 
designing to abandon the colony. His successor, 
Ratcliffe, proved inefficient, and Smith came to the 
front by his capable and vigorous management of 
affairs. Kendall, one of the council, was tried for 
mutiny, and shot. Ratcliffe and Archer next proposed 
to abandon the colony to its fate ; but the project was 
suppressed by Smith, and tranquillity was restored 
before the winter set in. 

On the 10th of December Smith left the colony in 
order to explore the interior. He went up the Chicka- 
hominy to trade for corn, and to find the head of that 
river. On its upper waters two of his men were taken 
by the Indians and slain, but Smith was saved by an 
Indian. Smith's own account of what followed is 
published in his General History of Virginia, where 
he brings in the story of the Princess Pocahontas. 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 221 

His adventures are thus summarized. : " Making his 
way (with his Indian guide) towards the boat, which 
he had left in charge of two of his men, he and the 
guide slipped together into an * oasie creek,' from 
which it was impossible to extricate themselves. Half 
dead with cold, he at length threw away his arms and 
surrendered, and was taken before Opechankanough, 
King of Pamunkey. He sought to propitiate the chief 
by presenting him with ' a round Ivory dowble com- 
pass Dyall.' The savages marvelled much at the 
playing of the needle, which they could see, but, for 
the glass over it, could not touch. With this ' globe- 
like-jewel,' Smith explained to the king and his people 
the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the shape 
of the earth, the extent of land and sea, the difference 
in the races of men, and 'many other suchlike matters,' 
at which, it was hardly necessary to add, the savages 
' all stood as amazed with admiration.' They never- 
theless tied the lecturer to a tree, and were about to 
shoot him to death with arrows, when Opechankanough, 
who seemed to have a better appreciation than his 
followers had of the sciences of astronomy and cosmo- 
graj)hy, holding up the wonderful compass, stayed the 
execution. They then released the prisoner, fed him, 
and used him well. So well, indeed, did they feed 
him, that he thought they meant to fatten him for a 
feast ; and they received him otherwise with so much 
honour, that they dressed themselves in their brightest 
paints, the plumage of the most brilliant birds, the 
choicest rattlesnake tails, and ' such toys ' — adding, 
perhaps, as Strachey says the Indians sometimes did, 
*a dead ratt tyed by the tail, and suchlike conun- 



222 THE UNITED STATES. 

drams ' — and so attired danced before him and the 
king, ' singing and yelling out with hellish notes and 
screeches.' They promised him, moreover, life and 
liberty, land and women, if he would aid them by his 
advice in an attack upon Jamestown ; but from this 
he dissuaded them by representations of the mines, 
great guns, and other engines with which such an 
attack would be repulsed. When he persuaded them 
to send a letter to the fort, and the messengers brought, 
as he promised they should, such things as he asked 
for, the savages were amazed anew, that either the 
paper itself spoke to those who received it, or that 
Smith had the power of divination. 

" This clothed and bearded white man was a strange 
spectacle to the Indians, and men, women, and children 
crowded to see him, as he was led from tribe to tribe. 
At length he was taken before the great king of all, 
Powhatan, at a place called Werowocomoco, which 
signifies king's house, on the north side of the York 
River, and only fourteen or fifteen miles from James- 
town. When Smith was led into his presence, the 
emperor received him in state, seated on a throne 
which was much like a bedstead, clothed in a robe of 
raccoon skins. On each side of him sat a young girl 
of sixteen or eighteen years, and beyond them a double 
row of men and women, their heads and shoulders 
painted red and adorned with feathers. A queen 
served the prisoner with water to wash his hands, and 
a bunch of feathers on which to dry them ; a feast was 
spread before him as if he were an honoured friend 
and welcome guest, for such was the Indian treatment 
of those who presently were to be led to die. 



OPEKATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 223 

" This ceremonious and hospitable reception was 
followed by a brief consultation between the king and 
his chief men. Two great stones were then brought 
in, to which Smith was dragged, and his head laid 
upon them. The executioners stood ready to beat out 
his brains with their clubs ; but at this critical moment 
' Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no 
intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her arms, and 
laid her owne upon his to save him from death; 
whereat the emperour was contented he should live 
to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and 
copper.' " 

Whatever truth or whatever romance there may be 
in this account, its main features relating to Smith's 
capture are probably correct. His captivity resulted 
in real benefit to the colony ; for he not only had 
opportunity of observing the country between the 
James and the Potomac, and gaining insight into the 
habits and character of the natives, but he opened 
up friendly relations thereby between the English and 
the tribes of Powhatan. 

When Smith reached Jamestown, after an absence 
of four weeks, he found the colony reduced to forty 
men, who were planning their escape in the pinnace ; 
but this attempt he sternly suppressed. His own life 
was j)laced in jeopardy, but he was saved by the 
opportune arrival of Captain Newport from England. 

Newport had been despatched by the London 
Council with supplies, and also with one hundred and 
twenty new emigrants. His arrival was hailed with 
joy, but the new-comers were consumed by the idea 
of gold, and Newport himself once more embarked 



224 THE UNITED STATES. 

for England with a cargo of worthless earth. Mean- 
time, from July to September, 1608, Smith "surveyed 
the Bay of the Chesapeake to the Susquehannah, 
and left only the borders of that remote river to 
remain for some years longer the fabled dwelling- 
place of a giant progeny. He was the first to 
publish to the English the power of the Mohawks, 
' who dwelt upon a great water, and had many boats, 
and many men,' and, as it seemed to the feebler 
Algonkin tribes, ' made war upon all the world.' In 
the Chesapeake he encountered a fleet of their canoes. 
The Patapsco was discovered and explored, and Smith 
probably entered the harbour of Baltimore. The 
majestic Potomac especially invited curiosity ; and 
he ascended beyond Mount Vernon and Washington 
to the falls above Georgetown. Nor did he merely 
examine the rivers and inlets. He penetrated the 
territories, and laid the foundation for future beneficial 
intercourse with the native tribes. The map which 
he prepared and sent to the company in London 
delineates correctly the great outlines of nature. The 
expedition was worthy of the romantic age of American 
history." 

Smith was appointed president of the council on 
the 10th of September, 1008; and when Newport 
again returned with supplies, he found a more hope- 
ful feeling in the colony. Seventy new emigrants, 
including two women, arrived with Newport from 
England. The two females were Mistress Forrest, 
and her maid Ann Burras ; and we read that Ann 
was married in the course of a few weeks to one 
John Laydon. 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 225 

Newport's new instructions from the London 
Council were to the effect that he was to bring home 
a lump of gold, to discover the passage to the South 
Sea, and to find the survivors of the Roanoke colony. 
He took out a number of things for Powhatan, in- 
cluding a crown for his coronation. The ceremony- 
was performed; but Newport was no match for the 
wily savage, and the Indian chief took a high tone 
afterwards when he referred to his " royal brother of 
England." 

Smith knew Powhatan better, and managed both 
him and his own fellow-colonists with discretion. 
But he was sadly handicapped, and he lost in rapid 
succession Captain Wynne and J. Scrivener, members 
of the council ; Captain Waldo, the commander of 
the fort in Smith's absence ; Anthony Gosnold, a 
brother of Bartholomew ; and eight others. Smith 
was the only member of the original council left ; 
and in writing to the London authorities, we find him 
saying, " When you send again, I entreat you rather 
send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, 
fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of 
trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand of such 
as we have." Meantime, he did his best to enforce 
industry amongst the surviving colonists. 

On the 23rd of May, 1609, the second charter of 
Virginia was issued under royal authority. It 
entrusted the colonization of the territory to a very 
numerous, wealthy, and influential body of adven- 
turers. The list was headed by the name of Robert 
Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, the enemy and rival of Sir 
Walter Raleigh, who was now languishing in the 

15 



226 THE UNITED STATES, 

Tower. Among tlie other names were those of the 
Earls of Sontliampton, Lincoln, and Dorset, George 
Percy, Sir Oliver Cromwell (uncle to the future Pro- 
tector), Sir Anthony Ashley, Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir 
Francis Bacon, Captain John Smith, Richard Hakluyt, 
and George Sandys. Many public companies were 
represented, as were also the nobility and gentry, the 
army and the bar, the trade, commerce, and industry 
of England. 

"The territory granted to the company extended 
two hundred miles to the north, and as many to the 
south of Old Point Comfort, ' up into the land through- 
out from sea to sea, west and north-west'; including 
' all the islands lying within one hundred miles along 
the coast of both seas of the precinct.' 

" At the request of the corporation, the new charter 
transferred to the company the powers which had 
before been reserved to the King. The perpetual 
supreme council in England was now to be chosen 
by the shareholders themselves, and, in the exercise 
of the functions of legislation and government, was 
independent of the monarch. 

"The governor in Virginia, whom the corporation was 
to appoint, might rule the colonists with uncontrolled 
authority, accord^ig to the tenor of instructions and 
laws established by the council ; or, in want of them, 
according to his own good discretion, even in cases 
capital and criminal, not less than civil ; and, in the 
event of mutiny or rebellion, he might declare martial 
law, being himself the judge of the necessity of the 
measure, and the executive officer in its administra- 
tion. If not one valuable civil privilege was guaran- 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPAISnT. 227 

teed to the emigrants, they were at least withdrawn 
from the power of the King, and the company conld 
at its pleasm'e endow them with all the rights of 
Englishmen. 

" Lord Delawarre, distinguished for his virtues as 
well as his rank, received the appointment of governor 
and captain-general for life, and was surrounded, at least 
nominally, by stately officers, with titles and charges 
suited to the dignity of a flourishing empire. The 
public mind favoured colonization ; the adventurers, 
with cheerful alacrity, contributed free-will offerings ; 
and such swarms of people desired to be transported, 
that the company could despatch a fleet of nine 
vessels, containing more than five hundred emigrants." 

Sir Thomas Gates was appointed lieutenant-governor 
of the colony, and Sir George Somers admiral of the 
expedition ; and these, with Captain Newport, the 
vice-admiral, took passage in the Sea Admnture. 
Among the captains of the fleet were Ratcliffe, Martin, 
and Archer, whose appointment was somewhat of a 
reflection upon Smith and his administration, as he 
had made formal complaints against them. A storm 
overtook the expedition soon after sailing, but seven 
of the vessels reached the Chesapeake in August. 

One of the two vessels missing was a pinnace, and 
the other was the admiral's ship conveying Gates, 
Somers, Newport, and William Strachey. The con- 
sequence was that a difficulty was created in Virginia 
when the other seven ships arrived. " The old charter 
was abrogated ; and there was in the settlement no 
one who had any authority from the new patentees. 
The emigrants of the last arrival were dissolute 



228 THE UNITED STATES. 

gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, 
broken tradesmen, gentlemen impoverished in spirit 
and fortune, rakes and libertines, more fitted to cor- 
rupt than to found the new commonwealth. It was 
not the will of God that these men should 'be the 
carpenters and workers in this so glorious a building.' 
Hopeless as the determination appeared. Smith, for 
more than a year, maintained his authority as presi- 
dent over the unruly herd, and devised new expeditions 
and new settlements for their occupation and support. 
When an accidental explosion of gunpowder disabled 
him by inflicting wounds which the surgical skill of 
the colony could not relieve, he delegated his office 
to Percy, and embarked for England, never to see 
Virginia again. He united the highest spirit of adven- 
ture with eminent powers of action. His courage and 
self-possession accomplished what others esteemed des- 
perate. Fruitful in expedients, he was prompt in 
execution. He was accustomed to lead, not to send, 
his men to danger; would suffer want rather than 
borrow, and starve sooner than not pay. He had a 
just idea of the public good and his country's honour. 
To his vigour, industry, and resolution the survival of 
the colony is due. He clearly discerned that it was 
the true interest of England not to seek in Virginia for 
gold and sudden wealth, but to enforce regular industry. 
' Nothing,' said he, ' is to be expected thence but by 
labour.' 

" The colonists, no longer controlled by an acknow- 
ledged authority, abandoned themselves to improvident 
idleness. Their ample stock of provisions was rapidly 
consumed ; and further supplies were refused by the 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 229 

Indians, who began to regard them with a fatal con- 
tempt. Stragglers from the town were cut off, parties 
which begged food in the Indian cabins were murdered, 
and plans were laid to starve and destroy the whole 
company. The horrors of famine ensued ; while a 
band of about thirty, seizing on a ship, escaped to 
become pirates, and to plead desperate necessity as 
their excuse. Smith had left more than four hundred 
and ninety persons in the colony : in six months, 
indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number to 
sixty ; and these were so feeble and dejected, that, if 
relief had been delayed but ten days longer, they also 
must have utterly perished." 

Sir Thomas Gates and his companions were wrecked 
on the rocks of the Bermudas, but they all safely 
reached land. The islands were henceforth known as 
the Somers Islands (from Sir George Somers) as well 
as the Bermudas, and the name became corrupted into 
Summer Islands. There was fortunately abundance 
of food for Gates and the one hundred and fifty men, 
women, and children who were with him. During 
the enforced stay of the colonists there were births, 
deaths, and a marriage. The wife of one John Rolfe 
gave birth to a daughter, who was christened Bermuda, 
and a boy born to another couple was called Bermudas. 

The castaways constructed two vessels, in which 
they embarked for Virginia. When they arrived, on 
the 24th of May, 1610, instead of finding a prosperous 
colony, they were shocked at the scene of misery, 
scarcity, and death which was revealed. The outlook 
was so hopeless that Gates and the colonists aban- 
doned Jamestown, and in four vessels went down the 



230 THE UNITED STATES. 

river in quest of another destination. As they drew 
near the mouth of the river on the 9th of June, they 
encountered the long-boat of Lord Delawarre, who 
had arrived on the coast with supplies and emigrants. 
All the colonists now returned to Jamestown, and on 
the 11th Delawarre himself also brought his three 
ships to anchor opposite the fort, and went ashore. 
When he landed, the new governor fell upon his knees 
and engaged in silent prayer. 

A procession of colonists met him by the shore ; and 
when his commission as captain-general had been 
read, Sir Thomas Gates surrendered into his hands 
the government of the colony. Delawarre at once 
began to reorganize the colony, combining firmness 
and urbanity in doing so. In a short time all the old 
troubles were healed, and the colonists became pacified 
and industrious. They began the day with prayers in 
the little church ; and after receiving their daily allow- 
ance of food, laboured from six in the morning until 
ten, and from two in the afternoon till four, raising 
substantial, well-timbered houses, etc. 

The governor despatched Sir George Somers and 
Captain Argall to the Bermudas, to bring off some of 
the wild swine with which the islands abounded, but 
the vessels were driven northward by stress of weather. 
Argall returned to England, but Somers reached the 
Bermudas, where he soon afterwards, however, died. 
Argall went on another exploring expedition up the 
coast, and on the 27th of July he anchored in a very 
large bay, which he called Delawarre, or Delaware. 
Forts were built on the James River, and the Indians 
were brought into peaceable relations. 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 231 

But while snccessfully administering the affairs of the 
colony, Lord Delawarre's health gave way, and he was 
compelled to return to England, leaving the government 
in the hands of Percy. This exercised a depressing 
effect, both upon the colonists and the London Council, 
and for a time the name of Virginia became a byword 
in England. Fortunately two fresh expeditions had 
already sailed for the colony before Delawarre's return. 
One was under the command of Sir Thomas Gates, 
and the other under Sir Thomas Dale. 

Dale, who was an experienced soldier, arrived in 
Chesapeake Bay on the 10th of May, 1611. He at 
once assumed the government, which he soon ad- 
ministered on the basis of martial law. Bancroft, the 
historian, observes that " the Code — printed and sent 
to Virginia by the treasurer, Sir Thomas Smith, on his 
own authority, and without the order or assent of the 
company — was chiefly a translation from the rules of 
war of the United Provinces. The Episcopal Church, 
coeval in Virginia with the settlement of Jamestown, 
was, like the infant commonwealth, subjected to mili- 
tary power ; and though conformity was not strictly 
enforced, yet court-martial had authority to punish 
indifference with stripes and infidelity with death. 
The normal introduction of this arbitrary system, 
which the charter permitted only in cases of rebellion 
and mutiny, added new sorrows to the wretchedness 
of the people, who pined and perished under despotic 
rule. 

"The letters of Dale to the council confessed the small 
number and weakness and discontent of the colonists, 
but he kindled hope in the hearts of those constant 



232 THE UNITED STATES. 

adventurers who, in tlie greatest disasters, had never 
fainted. ' If anything otherwise than well betide me,' 
said he, ' let me commend unto your carefulness the 
pursuit and dignity of this business, than which your 
purses and endeavours will never open nor travel 
in a more meritorious enterprise. Take four of the 
best kingdoms in Christendom, and put them all 
together, they may no way compare with this country, 
either for commodities or goodness of soil.' 

" Lord Delawarre and Sir Thomas Gates confirmed 
what Dale had written ; and, without any delay. Gates, 
who has the honour, to all posterity, of being the first 
named in the original patent for Virginia, conducted 
to the New World six ships, with three hundred 
emigrants. Long afterwards the gratitude of Virginia 
to these early emigrants was shown by repeated acts 
of benevolent legislation. A wise liberality sent also 
a hundred kine, as well as suitable provisions. It was 
the most fortunate step which had been taken, and 
proved the wisdom of Cecil and others, whose firmness 
had prevailed. 

" The promptness of this relief merits admiration. 
In May Dale had written from Virginia ; and the 
last of August the new recruits, under Gates, were 
already at Jamestown. So unlooked for was this 
supply, that, at their approach, they were regarded 
with fear as a hostile fleet. Who can describe the 
joy at finding them to be friends ? Gates assumed 
the government amidst the thanksgiving of the 
colony, and at once endeavoured to employ the senti- 
ment of religious gratitude as a foundation of order 
and of laws. ' Lord, bless England, our sweet, native 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 233 

conntry,' was the morning and evening prayer of the 
grateful emigrants. 

" The colony now numbered seven hundred men. 
Dale, with the consent of Gates, went far up the river 
to found the new plantation, which, in honour of 
Prince Henry, a general favourite with the English 
people, was named Henrico ; and there, on the 
remote frontier, Alexander Whitaker, the self-denying 
' apostle of Virginia,' assisted in '■ bearing the name 
of God to the Gentiles.' But the greatest change 
in the condition of the colonists resulted from the 
incipient establishment of private property. To each 
man a few acres of ground were assigned for his 
orchard and garden, to plant at his pleasure and for 
his own use. So long as industry had been without 
its special reward, reluctant labour, wasteful of time, 
had been followed by want. Henceforward the 
sanctity of private property was recognized. Yet the 
rights of the Indians were little respected \ nor did 
the English disdain to appropriate by conquest the 
soil, the cabins, and the granaries of the tribe of 
the Appomattocks. It was, moreover, the policy 
of the government so 'to overmaster the subtile 
Powhatan ' that he would perforce join with the 
colony in submissive friendship, or, finding * no room 
in his country to harbour in,' would ' leave it to their 
possession.' " 

The Spaniards threatened reprisals for the English 
appropriation of the country on the Chesapeake, but 
nothing came of their threats, although they made a 
reconnaissance. 

Before the Virginia colony was ten years old, 



234 THE UNITED STATES. 

the London Council began to grant patents of large 
tracts of land to individuals, and tracts were also 
given to colonists for meritorious services. The plant- 
ing of tobacco soon became so profitable that it was 
necessary to define strictly the proportions of land 
allowed to corn crops and tobacco culture. In March, 
1612, a third patent for Virginia was issued, granting 
to the adventurers in England the Bermudas and all 
islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia 
shore. These new acquisitions were soon transferred 
to a separate company. Meetings at least once a 
week were now ordered to be held by the old company; 
while all questions affecting government, commerce, 
and the disposition of lands were reserved for four 
great general courts, at which all oiJ&cers were to be 
elected and all laws established. The character of 
the corporation was completely changed by transferring 
power from the council to the company, through 
whose assemblies the people of Virginia might gain 
leave to exercise every political power belonging to 
the people of Eu gland. Lotteries were authorized for 
the benefit of the colony, and these soon produced 
£29,000 to the company ; but as they became a 
grievance, they were suspended by an Order of Council. 
An attempt was made in 1612 to restrain French 
colonization in North America. Argall made voyages 
from Virginia up the Potomac, and persuaded an 
Indian chief to betray the Princess Pocahontas into 
his hands, to be kept as a hostage at Jamestown for 
the return of Englishmen held captive by her father 
Powhatan. In a further expedition Argall destroyed 
the French settlements on Mount Desert Isle, and 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 235 

expelled the French from the territory. On making 
his report at Jamestown, he was once more despatched 
to the north, with authority to remove every landmark 
of France in the territory south of the forty-sixth 
degree. He razed the fortifications of De Monts on 
the Isle of St. Croix, set on fire the deserted settle- 
ment of Port Royal, and raised the arms of England 
on the spot where those of France and De Guercheville 
had been thrown down. So England asserted her 
claim to Maine and Acadia — a claim which was 
ultimately to result in great international strife and 
bloodshed. 

A most interesting incident now took place in the 
colony of Virginia. The Princess Pocahontas, who had 
been brought to a knowledge of the truth, and baptized 
into the Christian faith, married, in April, 1614, one 
of the settlers, Mr. John Rolfe, who was further 
distinguished as the first cultivator of tobacco in 
Virginia. Many eminent Americans trace their de- 
scent from this union, and its immediate effects were 
the pacification of Powhatan and the Chickahominy 
tribes, and the consolidation of the English settlement. 

Pocahontas received the baptismal name of Lady 
Rebecca. Sir Thomas Dale " took Rolfe and his wife 
to England, and with them went several other young 
Indians, men and women, and one Tamocomo, the 
husband of another of Powhatan's daughters. The 
young people were under the guardianship of the 
council, and to be educated as Christians ; but 
Tamocomo was an emissary of his father-in-law, under 
orders to gather information in regard to the English 
people. His observations may have been valuable, 



236 THE UNITED STATES. 

but he soon gave over an attempt to talce a census 
of tlie population by notches on a stick. The whole 
party excited the liveliest curiosity. The Lady Eebecca 
was received at Court with great favour, though grave 
doubts were entertained, suggested it was supposed 
by James, who was never unmindful of the divine 
right of kings, whether Kolfe had not been guilty of 
treason in presuming to make an alliance with a royal 
family. The princess appeared at the theatres and 
other public places, everywhere attracting great atten- 
tion as the daughter of the Virginian emperor, and 
as one to whom the colonists had sometimes been 
indebted for signal services, and everywhere exciting 
admiration for her personal graces, and the propriety 
and good sense with which she always conducted her- 
self. She remained in England for nearly a year, and 
died as she was about to sail for her native country. 
Her only child, a son, is claimed as the ancestor of 
some of the most respectable families of Virginia. 

'^ Alliances by marriage between the whites and 
Indians were encouraged, and were not infrequent, 
as it was hoped to establish by such connections more 
friendly relations with the savages. They had no 
doubt some influence, the marriage of Pocahontas 
especially leading to a treaty with Powhatan, which 
he faithfully observed so long as he lived, and which 
was renewed after his death, in 1618, by his successor." 

With regard to the condition of private property in 
lands among the Virginian colonists, this " depended 
in. some measure on the circumstances under which 
they had emigrated. To those who had been sent and 
maintained at the exclusive cost of the company, 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 237 

and were its servants, one month of their time and 
three acres of land were set apart for them, besides 
an allowance of two bushels of corn from the public 
store ; the rest of their labour belonged to their 
employers. This number gradually decreased ; and, 
in 1617, there were of them all, men, women, and 
children, but fifty-four. Others, especially the favourite 
settlement near the mouth of the Appomattox, were 
tenants paying two and a half barrels of corn as a 
yearly tribute to the store, and giving to the public 
service one month's labour, which was to be required 
neither at seedtime nor harvest. He who came 
himself, or had sent others at his own expense, had 
been entitled to a hundred acres of land for each person ; 
now that the colony was well established, the bounty 
on emigration was fixed at fifty acres, of which the 
actual occupation and culture gave a right to as many 
more, to be assigned at leisure. Besides this, lauds 
were granted as rewards of merit ; yet not more than 
two thousand acres could be so appropriated to one 
person. A payment to the company's treasury of 
£12 105. likewise obtained a title to any hundred 
acres of land not yet granted or possessed, with a 
reserved claim to as much more. Such were the 
earliest land laws of Virginia : though imperfect and 
unequal, they gave the cultivator the means of becoming 
a proprietor of the soil. These changes were established 
by Sir Thomas Dale, a magistrate, who, notwithstand- 
ing the introduction of martial law, has gained praise 
for his vigour and industry, his judgment and conduct." 
When Dale left the colony, he appointed George 
Yeardley deputy governor. Captain Argall succeeded 



238 THE UNITED STATES. 

for a time in May, 1617; but his administration was 
so arbitrary and oppressive, that in 1618 — after the 
news had been made public of the death of Lord 
Delawarre at sea while en route to Virginia — he was 
displaced, and the mild and popular Yeardley was 
appointed in his stead. Yeardley was granted higher 
rank and powers, and was knighted. He entered 
upon his office at Jamestown on the 19th of April, 
1619. The colony had fallen into a pitiable condition, 
not one in twenty of the emigrants remaining alive. 
" From the moment of Yeardley's arrival dates the real 
life of Virginia. Bringing with him ' commissions and 
instructions from the company for the better establish- 
inge of a commonwealth,' he made proclamation 
' that those cruell lawes, by which the ancient planters 
had soe longe been governed, were now abrogated, 
and that they were to be governed by those free lawes 
which his Majestie's subjectes lived under in Bnglande.' 
Nor were these concessions left dependent on the good- 
will of administrative officers. ' That the planters 
might have a hande in the governing of themselves, 
yt was graunted that a generall assemblie shoalde be 
helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the 
governor and counsell with two burgesses from each 
plantation, freely to be elected by the inhabitants 
thereof, this assemblie to have power to make and 
ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by them 
be thought good and profitable for their subsistence.' 

" In conformity with these instructions. Sir George 
Yeardley ' sente his summons all over the country, as 
well to invite those of the counsell of estate that 
were absente, as also for the election of burgesses.' " 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 239 

Beneficial changes were likewise effected in the 
London Company. Sir Thomas Smith was dismissed, 
and Sir Edwin Sandys was elected by a great majority 
governor and treasurer. John Ferrar was elected 
deputy, and his brother Nicholas, one of the purest 
and most unselfish of men, was appointed counsel to 
the corporation. The conduct of business gradually fell 
into the hands of Nicholas Ferrar, who combined a 
reverence for monarchy with a true regard for English 
liberties, and the efi'ect of his action was most bene- 
ficial upon the future of the Virginia Company. 

The 30th of July, 1619, was a day memorable in 
the history of the colony, for on that date the first 
legislative assembly from the eleven plantations of 
Virginia met at James City. It consisted of twenty- 
two representatives and the governor and council. 
" The inauguration of legislative power in the Ancient 
Dominion," says Bancroft, " preceded the introduc- 
tion of negro slavery. The governor and council sat 
with the burgesses, and took part in motions and 
debates. John Pory, a councillor and secretary of 
the colony, though not a burgess, was chosen speaker. 
Legislation was opened with prayer. The assembly 
exercised fully the right of judging of the proper 
election of its members ; and they would not suffer 
any patent, conceding manorial jurisdiction, to bar 
the obligation of obedience to their decisions. They 
wished every grant of land to be made with equal 
favour, that all complaint of partiality might be 
avoided, and the uniformity of laws and orders never 
be impeached. The commission of privileges sent by 
Sir George Yeardley was their ' great charter ' or 



240 THE UNITED STATES. 

organic act, which they claimed no right ' to correct 
or control ' ; yet they kept the way open for seeking 
redress, ' in case they should find ought not perfectly 
squaring with the state of the colony.' 

" Leave to propose laws was given to any burgess, or 
by way of petition to any member of the colony ; but, 
for expedition's sake, the main business of the session 
was distributed between two committees ; while a 
third body, composed of the governor and such bur- 
gesses as were not on those committees, examined 
which of former instructions ' might conveniently 
put on the habit of laws.' The legislature acted also 
as a criminal court. 

" The Church of England was confirmed as the 
Church of Virginia ; it was intended that the first 
four ministers should each receive £200 a year ; 
all persons whatsoever, upon the Sabbath days, were 
to frequent divine service and sermons both fore- 
noon and afternoon ; and all such as bore arms, to 
bring their pieces or swords. Grants of land were 
asked not for planters only, but for their wives, ' be- 
cause, in a new plantation, it is not known whether 
man or woman be the most necessary.' Measures 
were adopted ' towards the erecting of a university 
and college.' It was also enacted that, of the children 
of the Indians, ' the most towardly boys in wit and 
graces of nature should be brought up in the first 
elements of literature, and sent from the college to 
the work of conversion ' of the natives to the Chris- 
tian religion. Penalties were appointed for idleness, 
gaming with dice or cards, and drunkenness. Excess 
in apparel was taxed in the Church for all public 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 241 

contributions. The business of planting corn, mul- 
berry trees, hemp, and vines was encouraged. The 
price of tobacco was fixed at three shillings a pound 
for the best, and half as much ' for the second sort.' 

" When the question was taken on accepting ' the 
great charter,' ' it had the general assent and the 
applause of the whole assembly,' with thanks to it 
for Almighty God and to those from whom it had 
issued, in the names of the burgesses and of the whole 
colony whom they represented : the more so, as they 
were promised the power to allow or disallow the 
orders of court of the London Company." 

The laws made by this first elective body were 
pronounced by Sir Edwin Sandys to be on the whole 
" very well and judiciously formed." They were 
instantly put in force, former griefs were forgotten, 
and the colony began an era of prosperity. Although, 
in the twelve years before Sandys assumed office, the 
company had spent £80,000, with the result that 
there were only six hundred men, women, and children 
in the colony, in one year after Sandys took up the 
governorship the company and private adventurers 
made provision for sending over twelve hundred and 
sixty-one persons. Great interest in Virginia was 
kindled throughout England, and gifts and bequests 
flowed in for founding a colonial college and building 
up the colonial Church. George Herbert, the poet, 
and the bosom friend of Nicholas Ferrar, voiced the 
feeling of the mother country in his verse ; while 
another poet, George Sandys, son of the Archbishop 
of York, went out to Virginia as the resident treasurer 
of the colony of the London Company. 



242 THE UNITED STATES. 

On the nth of May, 1620, the quarter session was 
attended by nearly five hundred persons, among whom 
were twenty peers of the realm, about one hundred 
knights, an equal number of officers of the army and 
renowned lawyers, and numerous merchants and men 
of business. It was the general desire that Sir Edwin 
Saudys should be continued in the office of governor, 
but the meeting was postponed in consequence of an 
effort by the King to nominate another treasurer and 
governor. At the next quarter session in June, how- 
ever. Sir Edwin Sandys withdrew his claim in con- 
sequence of the ill-will of the sovereign. Thereupon 
the whole court, " with much joy and applause," 
nominated the Earl of Southampton, and he was 
elected by a universal show of hands, without having 
recourse to the ballot-box. 

But Southampton stipulated for the assistance of 
his friend Sir Edwin Sandys ; and these two, with 
the further co-operation of Nicholas Ferrar, now for 
a time managed " the great work of redeeming the 
noble plantation of Virginia from the ruins that 
seemed to hang over it." All three were men of 
high character and ability, the friends of liberty, and 
thorough Protestants. Under their ausjiices, more 
than eleven hundred persons now made their way 
annually to Virginia. Among the emigrants were 
ninety young women, agreeable in person and respect- 
able in character, who were sent out at the expense 
of the company, and were speedily married to enter- 
prising colonists, who repaid the cost of their passage 
out. In 1621 sixty more were despatched, maids of 
virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recom- 



I 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 243 

mended. The price rose from one hundred and twenty 
to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, and the 
debt for a wife was regarded as a debt of honour, 
which took precedence over any other. In conferring 
emijloyments, the company gave the preference to 
married men, and in the course of three years fifty 
patents for land were granted, the colony thus being 
placed on a stable foundation. Wrongs were redressed, 
and the right of the colonists to trial by jury confirmed. 
The freedom of the northern fisheries was soon equally 
asserted, and the monopoly of a rival corporation 
successfully opposed. 

By an important ordinance of the 24th of July, 1621, 
a written constitution was granted to the colony. It 
was taken out by Sir Francis Wyatt, who succeeded 
Yeardley in the governorship. The form of govern- 
ment was to be analogous to the English Constitution, 
and it was to a large extent the model for later 
settlements and colonies. The terms of the Virginia 
Constitution were few and simple : " a governor, to 
be appointed by the company ; a permanent council, 
likewise to be appointed by the company ; a general 
assembly, to be convened yearly, and to consist of the 
members of the council, and of two burgesses to be 
chosen from each of the several plantations by the 
respective inhabitants. The assembly might exercise 
full legislative authority, a negative voice being re- 
served to the governor ; but no law or ordinance would 
be valid, unless ratified by the company in England. 
It was further agreed that, after the government of 
the colony should have once been framed, no orders 
of the court in London should bind the colony, unless 



244 THE UNITED STATES. 

they shonld in like manner be ratified by the general 
assembly. The courts of justice were required to 
conform to the laws and manner of trial used in the 
realm of England." 

Representative government and trial by jury were 
thus conceded as a right ; and " on this ordinance 
Virginia erected the superstructure of her liberties. 
Its influences were wide and enduring, and can be 
traced through all her history. It constituted the 
I^lantation, in its infancy, a nursery of freemen; and 
succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions 
which were as old as the first period of the prosperity 
of their fathers. The privileges then conceded could 
never be wrested from the Virginians ; and as new 
colonies arose at the south, their proprietaries could 
hope to win emigrants only by bestowing franchises 
as large as those enjoyed by their elder rival. The 
London Company merits the praise of having auspi- 
cated liberty in America. It may be doubted whether 
any public act during the reign of King James was 
of more permanent or pervading influence ; and it 
reflects honour on Sir Edwin Sandys, the Earl of 
Southampton, Nicholas Ferrar, and the patriot 
royalists of England, that, though they were unable 
to establish guarantees of a liberal administration at 
home, they were careful to connect popular freedom 
inseparably with the life, prosperity, and state of 
society of Virginia." 

The question of slavery in Virginia now calls for 
notice. Slavery was prevalent both in the earlier 
ages of the world and in medieval times. The 
Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Moors, and the Chris- 



OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 245 

tians were all guilty of the practice, and we have 
already seen that the first discoverer of America 
enslaved the native Indians. The practice was con- 
tinned wherever colonization went on, and Virginia 
and other colonies were corrupted by it, New England 
also falling into the custom of importing negro slaves. 

A form of slavery known as conditional servitude, 
under indentures or covenants, existed from the first 
in Virginia. Men sent over from England were 
obliged to discharge the costs of their emigration, and 
oppression by the masters speedily ensued. White 
servants or slaves were sold at prices ranging from 
£40 to £80, and came to be regarded as customary 
articles of traffic. Negroes were valued at £20 or 
£25. In the year 1619 a Dutch man-of-war entered 
James River, and landed twenty African negroes for 
sale, and this formed the epoch of the introduction 
of negro slaves into the English colonies. By-and-by 
there was a regular slave trade in the markets of 
Virginia, and the antipathy between the white and 
the black races became every year more strongly 
pronounced. 

The first session under the new constitution was 
held in November and December, 1621, and the sub- 
jects discussed related chiefly to the encouragement 
of domestic industry. From this period dates the 
first planting of cotton, also the sending of beehives 
to Virginia, and the exportation of skilful workmen 
to extract iron from the ore. Five-and-twenty shijD- 
wrights likewise landed in 1622. Education and 
religious worship received attention, and the Bishop 
of London collected and sent over £1,000 towards 



246 THE UNITED STATES. 

the erection of a university, which was afterwards 
liberally endowed with lands. 

Wyatt adopted a policy of conciliation towards the 
natives; and the latter, gradually losing their fears 
of the British, were employed as fowlers and hunts- 
men. The English plantations were widely extended 
along the James River and towards the Potomac, 
and the great chief Powhatan remained the friend 
of the colonists. Everything seemed peaceable and 
prosperous, when suddenly a great act of treachery 
was perpetrated by the Indians on the 22nd of March, 
1622. At midday they fell upon a scattered and 
unsuspecting population occupying an area of one 
hundred and forty miles on both sides of the river. 
In one hour no fewer than three hundred and forty- 
seven persons were slaughtered, including women and 
children and missionaries. Jamestown was saved by 
being warned, and placed in a state of resistance ; 
but whereas before the massacres the emigrants in 
the colony exceeded four thousand, a year afterwards 
there only remained two thousand five hundred men. 

The immediate consequences of the Indian rising 
were disastrous. Public works were abandoned, and 
the settlements reduced from eighty plantations to 
eight ; many colonists returned to England ; while 
numbers of those remaining were ill and dispirited. 
In England the news excited angry feelings, but the 
London Company redoubled its energies in strengthen- 
ing the colony and sending out further detachments 
of emigrants. Meanwhile, expeditions against the 
Indians were undertaken by George Sandys, the 
colonial treasurer, Yeardley, the ex-governor, and 



OPEKATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COUP ANY. 247 

Captain Madison ; and stern reprisals were the order 
of the day for several years. 

In 1623 another difficulty arose, which seriously 
affected the status of the London Company. The Earl 
of Southampton and his friends were true to the 
interests of the colony ; but the adherents of the 
former treasurer — conspicuous amongst whom were 
Argall and his patron the Earl of Warwick — mis- 
represented matters to the King. Then, as James was 
contemplating the Spanish marriage with his son, he 
was further influenced by Gondomar, the Spanish 
envoy in London, who described the Virginia courts 
as " but a seminary to a seditious parliament." The 
company fully answered all allegations against it ; but 
the King was resolved to recover his authority, which 
he had signed away in the charter. 

Accordingly, on the 9th of May, 1623, commissioners 
were appointed to engage in a general investigation 
of the concerns of the corporation ; the records were 
seized, the deputy treasurer imprisoned, and private 
letters from Virginia intercepted. A long examination 
of Smith seemed to favour the cancelling of the charter 
as an act of benevolence to the colony. After a pre- 
liminary order to the Virginia court in June to delay 
the election of officers — which was disobeyed on grounds 
furnished by the charter itself— the King, in October, 
by an Order in Council, made known to the company 
that the disasters in Virginia were a consequence of 
their ill government ; that he had resolved by a new 
charter to reserve to himself the appointment of the 
officers in England, a negative on appointments in Vir- 
ginia, and the supreme control of all colonial affairs. 



248 THE UNITED STATES. 

The "Virginia Company took this order into considera- 
tion on the 20th of October, and by a majority of sixty 
votes to nine refused to surrender its charter into the 
King's hands. Nevertheless, on the 24th, James ap- 
pointed commissioners to proceed to Virginia, to enquire 
into the state of the plantation ; and among these com- 
missioners were John Harvey and Samuel Matthews, 
men whose names assumed great prominence in the 
later annals of Virginia. When the commission arrived 
in the colony, the general assembly was at once con 
vened, and it was decided to send an agent to England 
representing the true state of affairs, and entreating 
the King not to give credence to the statements in 
favour of Sir Thomas Smith's miserable rule, and 
repelling the imputations on the administration of 
Southampton and Ferrar. 

But the King was exasperated because the colonists 
would not voluntarily surrender their charter. The 
aid of the Privy Council was again invoked, whereupon 
the company appealed to the House of Commons for 
protection. James sent a message to the effect that 
the Virginia matter was in his hands, and " he would 
make it one of his masterpieces " ; so they must let 
it alone. Parliament grudgingly acquiesced ; and the 
next step was that the case was taken to the Court of 
King's Bench, where, on the 16th of June, 1624, the 
patent was declared by the Chief Justice to be null 
and void. 

Thus was brought about the dissolution of the 
London Company, but not nntil it had done noble 
work in completing the colonization of Virginia, and 
securing a liberal form of government for the English 



OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 249 

colonists in America. James partially compromised 
matters by putting the new administration into the 
hands of a commission, at the head of which, however, 
he placed Sir Thomas Smith. But the King was pre- 
vented by the hand of death from fulfilling his intention 
to prepare a new code of laws for his colony of Virginia, 
so that posterity was spared one of his juridical 
masterpieces. 



CHAPTER X. 

SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 

THE efforts at colonization made by the Northern 
Company — or the Plymouth Company, as it is 
frequently called — were of no less interest than those 
of the Southern Company. 

Even before the incorporation of the two companies, 
Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England, and Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth, had agreed 
to send out a ship each to begin a plantation in the 
northern region which Captain Waymouth had ex- 
plored in 1605. Popham had already had experience 
in colonization, for he was concerned in the project for 
the plantation of Munster ; while Gorges had for some 
time indulged the hope of acquiring domains and 
fortune in America. 

On the last day of May, 1607 — that is, not many 
months after the first southern exjiedition sailed — a 
small expedition fitted out by the Northern Company 
set forth from Plymouth. It consisted of the Mary 
and John, commanded by Raleigh Gilbert, a younger 
son of Sir Humphrey ; and the Gift of God, com- 
manded by Sir George Popham, brother of the Chief 

Justice, who was " well stricken in years and infirm, 

250 



SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 251 

yet willing to die in acting something that might be 
serviceable to God and honourable to his country." 
On board the former vessel were one hundred and 
twenty persons, most of whom were well adapted to 
the work of planting. They had for guide an Indian 
named Skitwarroes, who had been captured by Way- 
mouth. In exactly two months the vessels came to 
anchor on the American coast, off Monhegan Island. 

The emigrants were received in a friendly way by 
an Indian chief, Nahanada, and they forthwith pro- 
ceeded to explore the coast and islands, both ships 
entering the Kennebec on the 16th of August. Three 
days later they went ashore, and chose the Sabino 
Peninsula, near the mouth of the River Sagadahoc, 
for their colony and fort. They " had a sermon 
delivered unto them by their preacher," the chaplain 
Richard Seymour, after which Popham's commission 
was read, as well as the laws appointed by King 
James. " Without delay, most of the men, under the 
oversight of the president, laboured hard on a fort 
which they named St. George, a storehouse, fifty rude 
cabins for their own shelter, and a church. The 
carpenters set about the building of a small pinnace, 
the chief shipwright being one Digby, the first con- 
structor of sea-going craft in New England. Mean- 
while, Gilbert coasted toward the west, judged it to 
be exceeding fertile from the goodly and great trees 
with which it was covered, and brought back news 
of the beauty of Casco Bay with its hundreds of isles. 
When, following the invitation of the mighty Indian 
chief who ruled on the Penobscot, Gilbert would have 
visited that river, he was driven back by foul weather 



252 THE UNITED STATES. 

and cross winds. But he remained faithfully in the 
colony; and, in December, despatched his ships under 
another commander, who bore letters announcing to 
the Chief Justice the forwardness of the plantation, 
and importuning supplies for the coming year. A 
letter from President Popham to King James informed 
that monarch that his justice and constancy, his 
praises and virtues, had been proclaimed to the 
natives; and that the country produced fruits resem- 
bling spices, as well as timber of pine, and lay hard 
by the great highway to China over the southern 
ocean. The winter proved to be intensely cold ; no 
mines were discovered ; the natives, at first most 
friendly, grew restless ; the storehouse caught fire, 
and a part of the provisions of the colony was con- 
sumed ; the emigrants had brought discontent with 
them ; their president found his grave on American 
soil, ' the only one of the company that died there ' ; 
to the discomfort and despair of the poor planters, 
the ships which revisited the settlement with supplies 
brought nevrs of the death of the Chief Justice, who 
had been the stay of the enterprise; and Gilbert, 
who had shown rare ability, and had succeeded to 
the command at St. George, had, by the decease of 
his brother, become heir to an estate in England 
which required his presence. So, notwithstanding 
all things were in good forwardness, the fur trade 
with the Indians prosperous, and a store of sarsaparilla 
gathered, ' all former hopes were frozen to death,' 
and nothing was thought of but to quit the place. 
Wherefore, they all embarked in the newly arrived 
ships, and in the new pinnace the Virginia^ and set 



SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 253 

sail for England. Here was the end of that northern 
colony upon the River Sagadahoc. The returning 
colonists ' did coyne many excuses ' to conceal their 
want of spirit; but the Plymouth Company was 
dissatisfied ; Gorges esteemed it a weakness to be 
frightened at a blast. Three years had elapsed since 
the French had hutted themselves at Port Royal ; and 
the ships which carried the English from the Kennebec 
were on the ocean at the same time with the squadron 
of those who built Quebec during the summer in which 
Maine was deserted." 

The collapse of the Popham colony did not deter 
Sir Francis Popham, son of the Chief Justice, from 
sending several later expeditions to the coast of 
Maine, at his own cost. But no settlement was 
effected, and the Northern Virginia Company remained 
for a time quiescent. In 1614, however, a number of 
London merchants sent out Captain John Smith with 
two vessels to Maine. It was a prosperous venture, 
and much business was done with the fishermen. 
Smith explored the coast from Penobscot to Cape 
Cod, prepared a map, and named the country New 
England, which title Prince Charles confirmed. After 
Smith left for England, Captain Thomas Hunt, master 
of the second ship, kidnapped a considerable number 
of Indians, and sold them as slaves to the Spaniards. 
One of these escaped, made his way to London, and 
was restored to his native land to be an interpreter 
for English emigrants. 

In 1615 Smith was despatched by Gorges and other 
leading members of the Plymouth Company to found 
a colony in New England. The efibrt proved abortive, 



254 THE UNITED STATES. 

for Smith was compelled by violent storms to return 
to England. During this same year Richard Hawkins, 
president of the Plymouth Company, sailed to the 
coast of New England ; but finding a desperate war 
going on between the savages, he returned to England. 
Gorges next sent out, at his own expense, Richard 
Vines, who was a physician, to found a settlement. 
Vines spent the winter of 1616-17 at "Winter Harbour 
in Saco Bay. There was a severe pestilence amongst 
the natives, and Vines nursed them with such skill 
and assiduity that he was soon held in veneration and 
affectionate esteem by the natives. Vines traded with 
the Indians, and also did a great deal of exploring 
work entirely alone and unaided. In a little canoe 
he traced the Saco River to its course at Crawford's 
Notch, a place afterwards painfully associated with 
the captivity of white men. Vines first described the 
White Mountains. He restrained the trafiicking in 
rum with the Indians, and thus " favoured a kind of 
Maine Law before Maine existed." 

In 1619 Gorges fitted out an expedition under 
Captain Rocroft, who had before been in Virginia ; but 
he was killed by his men in a quarrel, and the vessel 
was lost. Gorges next tried a Captain Dermer, who 
had once sailed on a voyage with Smith. He left 
Plymouth in a ship fully commissioned ; and after 
reaching the Island of Monhegan, he explored the 
coast from Maine to Virginia in an open pinnace. 
Next he sailed through Long Island Sound, being the 
first Englishman to discover the passage. He acquired 
from the Indians the knowledge, as he thought, of a 
passage to the South Sea ; but this may have referred 



SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 255 

to the Hudson River. Proceeding to Virginia again, 
be soon afterwards died there. 

The Plymouth Company had always been dissatisfied 
with the joint charter with the Southern Company, 
under which the rights of both were specifically 
defined. So after nearly two years of agitation, they 
succeeded in obtaining from King James, in November, 
1620, a new and comprehensive charter for themselves. 
It was strongly opposed by the Virginia Company ; 
but Gorges laboured strenuously for it, and succeeded, 
after ably arguing for the charter before a committee 
of the House of Commons. The charter was granted 
to forty persons, some of them members of the King's 
household and government. The adventurers and 
their successors were incorporated as " The Council 
established at Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for 
the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing New 
England, in America." Their territory was defined as 
that land from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree 
of latitude ; so that " nearly all the inhabited British 
possessions to the north of the United States, all New 
England, New York, half of New Jersey, very nearly 
all Pennsylvania, and the whole of the country to the 
west of these States, comprising, and at the time 
believed to comprise, much more than a million of 
square miles, and capable of sustaining far more than 
two hundred millions of inhabitants, were, by a stroke 
of the pen of King James, given away to a corporation 
within the realm, composed of but forty individuals. 
The grant was absolute and exclusive : it conceded 
the land and islands, the rivers and the harbours, the 
mines and the fisheries. Without the leave of the 



256 THE UNITED STATES. 

conncil of Plymonth, not a ship might sail into a 
harbour from Newfoundland to the latitude of Phila- 
delphia, not a skin might be purchased in the interior, 
not a fish might be caught on the coast, not an 
emigrant might tread the soil. Those who should 
become inhabitants of the colony were to be ruled, 
without their own consent, by the corporation in 
England. A royal proclamation was soon issued, 
enforcing these provisions ; and a revenue was con- 
sidered certain from an onerous duty on all tonnage 
employed in the American fisheries." 

" The results which grew out of the concession of 
this charter," says Bancroft, " form a new proof, if 
any were wanting, of that mysterious connection of 
events by which Providence leads to ends that human 
councils had not conceived. The patent left the emi- 
grants at the mercy of the unrestrained power of the 
corporation ; and it was under grants from that plenary 
power, confirmed, indeed, by the English monarch, 
that institutions the most favourable to colonial liberty 
were established. The patent yielded everything to 
the avarice of the corporation ; the very extent of the 
concession rendered it of little value to them. The 
English nation, incensed at the erection of vast mono- 
polies by the royal prerogative, prompted the House 
of Commons to question the validity of the gift ; and 
the French, whose traders had been annually sending 
home rich freights of furs, derided the tardy action of 
the British monarch in bestowing lands and privileges 
which their own sovereign, seventeen years before, had 
appropriated. The patent was designed to hasten 
plantations, in the belief that men would eagerly 



SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 257 

throng to the coast, under the protection of the council ; 
and, in fact, adventurers were delayed through fear of 
infringing the rights of a powerful company. While 
the English monopolists were wrangling about their 
exclusive possessions, the first permanent colony on 
the soil of New England was established without the 
knowledge of the corporation and without the aid of 
King James." 

The Plymouth Company, on finding itself firmly 
established, made a grant of Nova Scotia, in 1621, to 
Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling. 
His rights extended from Cape Sable to the St. 
Lawrence, including Cape Breton and all the islands 
within six leagues. This grant encroached upon the 
disputed territory lying between the French and English 
settlements, Alexander seems to have desired to set 
up Scotch Presbyterianism against the growing bands 
of French Catholic emigrants. 

But the sea-coast of Maine, New Hampshire, and 
Massachusetts, and the lands extending to the little 
Plymouth colony just founded, were still unappro- 
priated. Therefore Gorges, in conjunction with John 
Mason, also a member of the Plymouth Company, 
obtained for himself and co-adventurer a grant of 
the region between the Merrimac and the Kennebec, 
stretching back to Canada and the Great Lakes. The 
owners called their territory Laconia ; and their grant 
being confirmed in 1623, they despatched from England 
a ship-load of emigrants, consisting of planters and 
fishermen, to efiect a permanent settlement. When 
these new settlers arrived off the mouth of the Pisca- 
taqua, they divided into two parties, one of which 

17 



258 THE UNITED STATES. 

chose the site of the old town of Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, while the other went np the river a few 
miles and began the settlement of Dover. These were 
two of the oldest towns in New England. Shortly 
afterwards Christopher Lovett made an attempt to 
colonize the connty and city of York. 

In the above year, 1623, Eobert Gorges, a son of Fer- 
dinando, was appointed governor-general of the whole 
of the domains belonging to the Plymouth Company, 
with authority to establish laws and principles of govern- 
ment similar to those of England. An extensive tract 
of land on Massachusetts Bay, three hundred square 
miles in extent, was given him by the company. 
Under him were Captain West and Captain Lovett, 
and the governor of the New Plymouth colony recently 
established. Gorges' wife was a daughter of the Earl 
of Lincoln, who was interested in Puritan emigration. 
Not liking the country, however. Gorges returned to 
Enghind in 1624. His rights were made over to his 
brother, John Gorges, who subsequently surrendered 
them to William Brereton, who settled several families 
upon the lands. 

As yet no permanent settlement had been made on 
the coast of Maine ; but in 1625 two Bristol merchants, 
Aldworth and Eldridge, bought Moneghan Island, and 
established an agent there. Later, they acquired the 
Point of Pemaquid, where they founded a flourishing 
colony, which by 1630 numbered eighty-four families. 
Richard Vines and John Oldham were also granted a 
tract of land each by the council on the Saco River. 
These lands had a breadth of four miles each on the 
sea, and extended inland for eight miles. The two 



SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 259 

proprietors founded the towns of Bideford and Saco, 
whicli were opposite each other on the banks of the 
river. Thus began the settlements in Maine ; bnt un- 
fortunately they were of a straggling character, and 
the colony made but slow progress. In 1631 Mason 
and Gorges agreed to divide their grant, the former 
taking all west of the Piscataqua, and calling it New 
Hampshire, after his own English county, while Gorges 
took all land east of that stream to the River Saga- 
dahoc, which he named New Somersetshire, after his 
own native county. Gorges' settlers planted the town 
of York, on which an emigrant named Edward Godfrey 
became the first settler. Gorges set aside twelve 
thousand acres as a kind of future provisional interest 
for his family. 

In 1635, however, the reign of the Plymouth 
Company itself came to an end. In detailing the 
reasons for this, the historians Bryant and Gay remark : 

" Already bitter complaints were made in England, 
that discontented spirits, full of disaffection to the 
King, and hostile to the government of the Established 
Church, were settling on the grants made by the Ply- 
mouth Company. Gorges, in New England, was looked 
upon with jealousy and dislike by many of the Puritans, 
because of his large territorial claims in their vicinity, 
as well as on account of his opinions as a loyalist and 
member of the English Church; on the other hand, 
he was attacked in England as an upholder and author 
of the reputed licence of laws and opinions among the 
new colonies in Massachusetts. He seems to have 
been deeply hurt at this, after his long and arduous 
ivork in forwarding the plantation of English colonies 



260 THE UNITED STATES. 

in New England, and lie ' therefore was moved to 
desire the rest of the lords, that were the principal 
actors in this business, that we should resign our 
grand patent to the King, and pass particular patents 
to ourselves, of such parts of the country about the 
sea-coast as might be sufficient to our own uses, and 
such of our private friends as had affections to works 
of that nature.' This was done in 1 635, and the lands 
of the company lying between the forty-eighth and 
thirty-sixth degree of latitude were parcelled out 
among its members. 

" This new division confirmed the right of Gorges 
to the tract lying between the Piscataqua and the 
Kennebec, with a sea-coast of sixty miles, and an 
extent of one hundred and twenty miles inland. And 
now for the first time he called this his province of 
Maine, and he drew up for it a code of laws, dividing 
the land first into counties, subdividing these into 
hundreds, and again into parishes or tithings, as fast 
as population flowed in to fill up the vacant places. 
He offered also to transport planters to his domain, 
promising to assign them a certain portion of land 
at the low rate of two or three shillings for a hundred 
acres ; and if any would found a town or city, he would 
endow it with such liberties and immunities as they 
would have in England. Others of poorer condition, 
who would go as labourers, should have as much 
land as they could till, at the rent of four or six pence 
an acre, according to the situation." 

King Charles granted a commission to Gorges in 
April, 1639, constituting him governor of New England, 
in order to recompense him for past labours and losses. 



SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 261 

Gorges had never seen America, but now in his old 
age he made preparations to go out to Maine to 
assume the duties of his important office. He was 
anxious to found cities, draw up laws, and propound 
a scheme of colonial government. He never lived to 
carry out his ideas, however, but was content to send 
over, in 1640, his kinsman Thomas Gorges instead. 
But Ferdinando Gorges rendered very serviceable 
work in the early settlement of New England, and 
he was a real friend to colonization, working un- 
selfishly with this view. 

Here we pause in our survey of the New England 
colonies, which, after the close of the operations of 
the two Virginia Companies, enter upon a new stage 
of existence. 



CHAPTER XI. 

COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 

rpHE foundation of Maryland forms an interesting 
X chapter in the history of North American coloniza- 
tion. It is inseparably interwoven with the name of 
Sir George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, and with 
those of his son and grandson, Cecil and Charles 
Calvert, who ruled the colony for upwards of fifty 
years. 

Originally, the land which forms the State of Mary- 
land was included in the second charter of the Virginia 
Company ; but before Virginia could occupy the ter- 
ritory north of the Potomac, it was promised to George 
Calvert for his separate government. Calvert was 
a Yorkshireman, and was born at Kipling about the 
year 1582. He graduated at Oxford in 1597, and 
became secretary to Sir Robert Cecil, who obtained 
for him a clerkship of the Privy Council. He was 
knighted by King James in 1617, and made a Secretary 
of State, but resigned the ofiice in 1624, as he had 
become a Roman Catholic. In 1625, however, he 
was made a peer of Ireland, with the title of Lord 
Baltimore. 

At a very early stage in his career Calvert was 

262 



COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 263 

interested in the work of colonization. He was a 
member of the Virginia Company, and in 1621 obtained 
a patent from the King for the southern promontory 
of Newfoundland, which he named Avalon. Here he 
expended money lavishly in building warehouses and 
a splendid mansion. Soon after the death of his royal 
patron he visited his colony, and again in 1629, when 
he captured some French ships which had been harass- 
ing the colonists. But Calvert found the climate too 
severe, and wrote to Charles I. requesting another 
grant farther south. He visited Virginia and explored 
Chesapeake Bay, but his religion made him unpopular 
with the settlers. The King endeavoured to dissuade 
him from founding another colony ; but Calvert was 
so persistent, and was so delighted with the country, 
that he overcame the King's scruples. 

Accordingly, early in 1632, Charles promised Balti- 
more a new patent, granting him all that part of the 
country now included in the States of Maryland and 
Delaware. As Baltimore died in April, 1632, however, 
the patent was continued to, and made out in the 
name of, his son Cecilius, or Cecil, Baron Baltimore. 
The limits of the territory were defined as the ocean, 
the fortieth parallel of latitude, the meridian of the 
western fountain of the Potomac, the river itself from 
its source to its mouth, and a line drawn due east 
from Watkin's Point to the Atlantic. The name of 
Maryland was given to the province, after Charles's 
wife. Queen Henrietta Maria. The land was given to 
Lord Baltimore and his heirs and assigns for ever, as 
true and absolute lords and proprietaries. They held 
by the tenure of fealty only, paying a yearly rent of 



264 THE UNITED STATES. 

two Indian arrows, and a fifth of all gold and silver 
ore which might be fonnd. 

But the authority of the governor of Maryland 
was absolute rather as regarded the Crown than the 
colonists. "The charter, like the constitution of 
Virginia of July, 1621, provided for a resident council 
of state ; and like Calvert's patent, which in April, 1621, 
had passed the Great Seal for Avalon, secured to the 
emigrants themselves an independent share in the 
legislation of the province, of which the statutes were 
to be established with the advice and approbation 
of the majority of the freemen or their deputies. 
Authority was entrusted to the proprietary, from time 
to time, to constitute fit and wholesome ordinances, 
provided they were consonant to reason and the laws 
of England, and did not extend to the life, freehold, 
or estate of any emigrant. For the benefit of the 
colony, the statutes restraining emigration were dis- 
pensed with ; and all present and future liege people 
of the English King, except such as should be ex- 
pressly forbidden, might transport themselves and 
their families to Maryland. Christianity as professed 
by the Church of England was protected ; but the 
patronage and advowsons of churches were vested in 
the proprietary ; and as there was not an English 
statute on religion in which America was specially 
named, silence left room for the settlement of religious 
affairs by the colony. Nor was Baltimore obliged to 
obtain the royal assent to his appointments of officers, 
nor to the legislation of his province, nor even to make 
a communication of the one or the other. Moreover, 
the English monarch, by an express stipulation, cove- 



COLONIZATION OF MAEYLAND. 265 

nanted that neither he, nor his heirs, nor his successors 
should ever, at any time thereafter, set any imposition, 
custom, or tax whatsoever upon the inhabitants of the 
province. To the proprietary was given the power of 
creating manors and courts baron, and of establish- 
ing a colonial aristocracy on the system of sub- 
infeudation. But feudal institutions could not be 
perpetuated in the lands of their origin, far less renew 
their youth in America. Sooner might the oldest oaks 
in Windsor forest be transplanted across the Atlantic 
than the social forms which Europe was beginning to 
reject as antiquated. But the seeds of popular liberty, 
contained in the charter, would find in the New World 
the soil best suited to quicken them." 

Athough the first Lord Baltimore was a strong 
supporter of royal prerogative in England, he favoured 
popular institutions and liberty of conscience in the 
colonies. Many of the provisions of the Maryland 
charter were supposed to be due to him, and it was 
even thought that he might have drawn up the entire 
paper. His design was to found a colony where there 
should be, on the one hand, a hereditary landed aris- 
tocracy and many features of the feudal system, and, 
on the other hand, an assembly of freemen whose 
consent should be necessary to all laws. 

In November, 1633, Cecil Calvert, the new Lord 
Baltimore, sent out an expedition under his brother 
Leonard to his new domain. The bulk of the emi- 
grants were labourers, but there were some twenty 
gentlemen of influence and wealth. Accompanying 
the expedition, which was under Roman Catholic 
leadership, were Father Andrew White and Father 



266 THE UNITED STATES. 

Jolm Altham, men of pious and self-sacrificing lives. 
The former wrote a narrative of the expedition in 
Latin. The emigrants sailed from Cowes, in the Isle 
of Wight, in two vessels, the Ark and the Dove, and 
they arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia, on the 
24th of February, 1634, when they received a warm 
welcome from the governor, Harvey. 

On the 3rd of March the adventurers resumed their 
journey, and entered the Potomac. The Ark came to 
an anchor under an island, but Calvert, with the Dove 
and another pinnace, ascended the stream. About one 
hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the river, 
Calvert landed at the Indian settlement of Piscataqua, 
nearly opposite Mount Vernon, where he met with an 
Englishman who traded amongst the Indians. With 
the aid of this interpreter, who was a Captain Henry 
Fleet, the settlers parleyed with the Indians, who 
neither opposed nor welcomed their arrival. Not 
deeming it wise to plant so far from the sea, Calvert 
went down the river, examining the creeks and estuaries 
nearer the Chesapeake. One stream which flowed 
into the Potomac he named the St. George, and one 
of the two harbours which formed its mouth he called 
St. Mary's, which has since become the name of the 
whole river. About four leagues from the junction of 
the river with the Potomac, he anchored at the Indian 
town of Yoacomoco. As the Indians were already 
quitting the town for a place of more security against 
the Susquehannah tribes, they readily came to an 
understanding with the English, whom they permitted 
to take possession of the site. 

On the 25th of March, the day of the Annunciation, 



COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND 267 

the emigrants took possession of the country with 
solemn ceremonies. Mass was celebrated on the beach 
— this being the first time in that region — and then, 
on the highest part of the island, a great cross of 
wood was erected, round which the emigrants knelt 
while the Litany was read. Leonard Calvert next 
proclaimed the English right to the territory, which 
was taken possession of " for our Saviour and for our 
Sovereigne Lord and King of England." The governor 
named the first village of Maryland St. Mary's, and 
the work of building and planting was at once begun. 
A Roman Catholic church was erected, and two frag- 
ments of its rude altar-piece are still preserved in the 
Roman Catholic College at Georgetown. 

The colonists, more fortunate than many others, 
endured no suff'erings ; " no fears of want arose, the 
foundation of the colony of Maryland was peacefully 
and happily laid, and in six months it advanced more 
than Virginia in as many years. The proprietary 
continued with great liberality to provide everything 
needed for its comfort and protection, expending 
£20,000 sterling, and his associates as many more. 
But far more memorable was the character of the 
Maryland institutions. One of the largest wigwams 
was allotted to the Jesuit missionaries, who relate 
that the first chapel in Maryland was built by the 
Lidiaus. Of the Protestants, though they seem as 
yet to have been without a minister, the religious 
rights were not abridged. This enjoyment of liberty 
of conscience did not spring from any act of colonial 
legislation, nor from any formal and general edict of 
the governor, nor from any oath as yet imposed by 



268 THE UNITED STATES. 

instructions of the proprietary. Englisli statutes were 
not held to bind the colonies, unless they especially 
named them ; the clause which, in the charter for 
Virginia, excluded from that colony ' all persons 
suspected to affect the superstitions of the Church 
of Rome ' found no place in the charter for Mary- 
land; and while allegiance was held to be due, 
there was no requirement of the oath of supremacy. 
Toleration grew up in the province silently, as a 
custom of the land. Through the benignity of the 
administration, no person professing to believe in the 
divinity of Jesus Christ was permitted to be molested 
on account of religion. Roman Catholics, who were 
oppressed by the laws of England, were sure to find 
a peaceful asylum on the north bank of the Potomac ; 
and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against 
Protestant intolerance. From the first, men of foreign 
birth were encouraged to plant, and enjoyed equal ad- 
vantages with those of the English and Irish nations." 
Grave difficulties arose, however, in connection with 
the proceedings of an adventurer named William 
Clayborne, who was protected by the Virginians, and 
who had purchased from the Indians the right to the soil 
of the Isle of Kent. The allegiance of Clayborne's 
settlement was claimed under the patent of Maryland ; 
but the governor of Virginia told Clayborne that this 
question was as yet undetermined in England, so 
the latter went on trading with the natives. Lord 
Baltimore gave orders to seize him if he did not 
submit, and the English Secretary of State directed 
Sir John Harvey to assist in suppressing Clayborne's 
malicious practices. 



COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 269 

So matters stood when the colony of Maryland was 
first convened for legislation in February, 1635. Un- 
fortunately, no account of the proceedings has come 
down to us, so it is impossible to say what was done 
to vindicate the authority of the province. But in 
April of the above year there was an armed conflict 
between Clayborne's vessel, the Long Tail — while 
on a trading voyage — and two pinnaces commissioned 
by the Marylanders, and commanded by one Cornwallis. 
The Long Tail was captured ; and when Clayborne 
sent an armed boat under Ratcliif Warren to recapture 
her or seize any Maryland vessels he might encounter, 
Cornwallis, on the 10th of May, slew Ratcliff and two 
others of the Virginians, taking the rest prisoners. 

As matters now became serious, and the Marylanders 
demanded the surrender of Clayborne on the charge 
of felony, the latter proceeded to England to lay his 
case before the King. There was great excitement at 
Jamestown, but while Clayborne was away the govern- 
ment of Maryland was established on the Isle of Kent. 
In January, 1638, a new assembly was convened, in 
which the Isle of Kent was represented. An act o 
attainder was carried against Clayborne, and his 
officer, Thomas Smith, was brought to trial, condemned, 
and executed. Meanwhile, the General Assembly of 
Virginia, equally excited and angry with its governor 
for not taking strong measures to protect Clayborne 
and his rights, deposed Harvey and sent him to 
England for trial, and elected John West as governor 
in his stead. 

In England Clayborne procured a favourable hearing 
from Charles ; but when his case was finally referred 



270 THE UNITED STATES. 

to the commissioners for the plantations, it was decided 
that Clayborne had no rights as against the charter of 
Maryland, and that the Isle of Kent belonged to Lord 
Baltimore, who alone conld permit plantations to be 
established, or commerce with the Indians to be 
conducted, within his territory. 

The colonists of Maryland were very jealous of their 
liberties ; and while the first assembly vindicated the 
jurisdiction of the colony, and the second asserted its 
claims to original legislation, the third framed a 
declaration of rights, asserting the liberties which 
Englishmen enjoyed at home, establishing a system of 
representative government, and asserting such powers 
as were exercised by the Commons of England. As 
negro slavery already prevailed, however, native or 
foreign slaves were debarred from the rights enjoyed 
by the settlers. "In October, 1640, the Legislative 
Assembly of Maryland, in the grateful enjoyment of 
happiness, seasonably guarded the tranquillity of the 
province against the perplexities of an ' interim,' by 
providing for the security of the government in case 
of the death of the deputy governor. Commerce was 
fostered, and tobacco, the staple of the colony, sub- 
jected to inspection. The act which established Church 
liberties declares that ' Holy Church, within this 
province, shall have and enjoy all her rights, liberties, 
and franchises, wholly and without blemish.' This 
enactment of a clause in Magna Charta, cited in the 
preceding century by some of the separatists, as a 
guarantee of their religious liberty, was practically 
interpreted as in harmony with that toleration of all 
believers in the divinity of Jesus Christ which was 



COLONIZATIOIT OF MAE YL AND. 271 

the recognized usage of the land. Nor was it long 
before the inhabitants acknowledged Lord Baltimore's 
great charge and solicitude in maintaining the govern- 
ment and protecting them in their persons, rights, 
and liberties ; and therefore, ' out of desire to return 
some testimony of gratitnde,' they granted 'such a 
subsidy as the young and poor estate of the colony 
could bear.' Ever intent on advancing the interests 
of his colony, the proprietary invited the Puritans of 
Massachusetts to emigrate to Maryland, offering them 
lands and privileges, and ' free liberty of religion ' ; 
but Gibbons, to whom he had forwarded a commission, 
was ' so wholly tutored in the New England disci- 
pline' that he would not advance the wishes of the 
Irish peer, and the people were not tempted to desert 
the Bay of Massachusetts for the Chesapeake. 

" The aborigines, alarmed at the rapid increase of the 
Europeans, and vexed at being frequently overreached 
by their cupidity, commenced hostilities ; for the 
Indians, ignorant of the remedy of redress, always 
plan retaliation. After a war of frontier aggressions, 
marked by no decisive events, peace was re-established 
with them on the usual terms of submission and 
promises of friendship, and rendered durable by the 
prudent legislation of the assembly and the humanity 
of the government. Kidnapping them was made a 
capital offence ; the sale of arms to them prohibited 
as a felony ; and the pre-emption of the soil reserved 
to the proprietary. To this right of pre-emption Lord 
Baltimore would suffer no exception. The Jesuits 
had obtained a grant of land from an Indian chief ; 
the proprietary, ' intent upon his own affairs, and not 



272 THE UNITED STATES. 

fearing to violate the immunities of the Chnrch,' 
would not allow that it was valid, and persisted in 
enforcing against Catholic priests the necessity of 
obtaining his consent before they could acquire real 
estate in his province in any wise, even by gift." 

In April, 1642, Clay borne was compensated for the 
loss of his alleged rights by being appointed by the 
King treasurer of Virginia for life. Meanwhile, 
Maryland, which was very largely Protestant, though 
governed by Roman Catholics, was greatly disturbed 
by the events in England, where Charles and his 
Parliament were in conflict. Leonard Calvert, Balti- 
more's deputy, consequently went to England for 
advice ; and during his absence. Brent, the acting 
governor, seized a London ship which anchored at St. 
Mary's, and under a general authority from the King 
tendered to its crew an oath against the Parliament. 
But Eichard Ingle, the commander, escaped in January, 
1644, and it was sought to recapture him and convict 
him of treason. Calvert returned to find the colony 
rent by discord, and Clayborne reasserting his claims. 
Ingle, who had been to England, now returned, and 
overran the colony. He raised the standard of Parlia- 
ment, destroyed the records and the Grand Seal, and 
compelled the governor and secretary, with a few of 
their adherents, to fly to Virginia. Father White 
and the other Jesuit missionaries were sent to England, 
but Ingle tried in vain to impose an oath of submis- 
sion upon the colonists. 

Calvert appealed to the Virginians for aid, but 
they only offered to arbitrate, at the same time invit- 
ing Clayborne to cease from intermeddling on Kent 



COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 273 

Island. At length, towards the close of 1646, Calvert 
organized a considerable force, with which he swept 
down upon St. Mary's and recovered the province. 
He next reduced Kent Island, and appointed Robert 
Vaughan, a Protestant, as its commander. Calvert 
had begun anew a wise and clement rule, when he 
somewhat suddenly died on the 9th of June, 1647. 
He appointed Thomas Greene, one of his council, to 
be. his successor, but times of turmoil and difficulty 
for the colony ensued. 

The English Parliament was petitioned to remove 
Lord Baltimore and his deputy, and to settle the 
government of Maryland in the hands of Protestants. 
But the matter dragged on for three years without 
result, which gave Baltimore time to set his own 
house in order. In August, 1648, he removed Greene, 
who was a Roman Catholic, and appointed in his 
place a Protestant named William Stone, who had 
promised to take out a large number of emigrants to 
the colony. Stone was bound by an oath to maintain 
the rights of his lord, but there was to be no perse- 
cution of the Roman Catholics. A general amnesty 
was proclaimed; and at the instance of Stone, his 
council of six was constituted with three Protestants 
and three Catholics. These, with the representatives 
of the people of Maryland — of whom five were 
Catholics — met in a general session of the assembly, 
held in April, 1649. There was then placed upon the 
statute-book an Act securing religious freedom for 
all m the colony. This noble declaration api^eared in 
the Act : " And whereas the enforcing of the con- 
science in matters of religion hath frequently fallen 

18 



274 THE UNITED STATES. 

ont to be of dangerous consequence in those common- 
wealths where it has been practised, and for the more 
quiet and peaceable government of this province, and 
the better to preserve mutual love and amity among 
the inhabitants, no person within this province, pro- 
fessing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be in any- 
ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for his 
or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof." But 
this clause was introduced by a proviso couched in 
a very severe spirit, to the effect that "whatsoever 
person shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or rejjroach 
the Holy Trinity, or any of the three Persons thereof, 
shall be punished with death." 

Still, freedom of conscience was the cardinal prin- 
ciple of the Act, and Maryland soon became a refuge 
for oppressed colonists from Virginia. One band of 
Puritans or Independents who had been banished for 
Nonconformity by Sir William Berkeley, the governor 
of Virginia, were granted lands on the banks of the 
Severn by the Mary landers ; and their place of refuge, 
to which they gave the name of Providence, is now 
known as Annapolis. 

By an Act passed in 1650, the Maryland house of 
representatives was separated from the council, and 
the right of veto was thus secured to the people. The 
employment of martial law was limited to the pre- 
cincts of the camp and the garrison ; and a perpetual 
Act declared that no tax should be levied upon the 
freemen of the province, except by the vote of their 
deputies in a general assembly. Acknowledgment 
was made of the efforts of the proprietor to secure 
the peace and happiness of the colony. But after 



COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 275 

the overthrow of the monarchy and the peerage in 
England, difficulties supervened in Maryland ; Virginia 
tried to revive its rights beyond the Potomac ; Stone 
was active as Lord Baltimore's deputy ; the Long 
Parliament threatened to intervene ; and, finally, 
Charles IL issued a commission to Sir William 
Davenant as governor. 

Owing to some unexplained reason, in the last draft of 
the instructions to the Parliamentary Commissioners, 
in 1651, authority was given to reduce "all the 
plantations within the Bay of the Chesapeake," which 
included Maryland. Acting upon this, Bennett and 
Clayborne entered the province in March, 1652. They 
seized the commissions of Stone and his council, 
declared them to be null and void, and appointed an 
executive council to direct the affairs of the colony. 
An assembly was summoned of burgesses elected 
only by those freemen who had taken the oath to 
the Commonwealth of England. But in April the 
assembly of Virginia, acting in conformity to the 
manifest desire of the inhabitants of Maryland, re- 
instated Stone as governor, with a council of which 
three at least were friends of Lord Baltimore. 

In England, Baltimore was working for the in- 
dependence of his own colony, and against its union 
with Virginia. But the dissolution of the Long 
Parliament brought fresh difficulties. Although, in 
May, 1654, Stone proclaimed Cromwell as Lord Pro- 
tector, Bennett and Clayborne — then governor and 
secretary of Virginia — entered Maryland, and raised 
troops. Stone was prevailed upon by his Roman 
Catholic friends to surrender his commission, and 



276 THE UNITED STATES. 

Bennett and Clayborne appointed Captain William 
Fuller and nine others commissioners for governing 
Maryland. An assembly was summoned, but all 
Eoman Catholics, and persons who had borne arms 
against the Parliament, were disqualified from being 
either electors or representatives. 

Eeligious feuds arose ; and when the assembly 
met in October, 1654, at Patuxent, the authority of 
Cromwell was recognized, and the whole Romish 
party were formally disfranchised. Baltimore, who 
described these proceedings, when he heard of them, 
as " illegal, mutinous, and usurped," took steps 
through his officers to vindicate his supremacy. Stone 
resumed his authority, stating that his resignation 
had been extorted by force, and Papists and friendly 
Protestants were empowered to levy men. The 
leaders regained possession of the provincial records. 
But in a conflict with his opponents Stone was 
defeated, and yielded himself and his company as 
prisoners. A council of war condemned the governor 
and his councillors, with some others, to be shot ; but 
although three Roman Catholics and one Protestant 
were executed. Stone and five others were spared. 

Cromwell was appealed to in order to effect a settle- 
ment in Maryland, but he left the jurisdiction an open 
question. In July, 1656, consequently, Baltimore 
commissioned Josiah Fendall as his lieutenant, and 
sent over his brother Philip Calvert as councillor 
and principal secretary of the province. But Fendall 
was seized by those who had usurped authority, and 
he was only released on promising to return to 
England, there to await a final decision. " To England, 



COLONIZATION OF MAETLAND. 277 

therefore, lie sailed the next year, that he might consnlt 
with Baltimore, leaving Barber, a former member of 
Cromwell's household, as his deputy. Still the Pro- 
tector, by reason ' of his great affairs,' had not leisure 
to consider the report of the commissioners for trade 
on the affairs of Maryland. 

"At last, in November, 1657, Lord Baltimore, by 
' the friendly endeavours of Edward Digges,' negotiated 
with Bennett and Matthews, all being then in England, 
an agreement for the recovery of his province. The 
proprietary covenanted so far to waive his right of 
jurisdiction as to leave the settlement of past offences 
and differences to the disposal of the Protector and 
his Council ; to grant the land claims of * the people 
in opposition,' without requiring of them an oath of 
fidelity, but only some engagement for his support ; 
and, lastly, he promised for himself never to consent 
to a repeal ' of the law whereby all persons professing 
to believe in Jesus Christ have freedom of conscience 
there.' 

" Returning to his government with instructions, 
Fendall, in the following March, held an interview 
with Fuller, Preston, and the other commissioners at 
St. Leonards, when the agreement was carried into 
effect. The Puritans were further permitted to retain 
their arms, and were assured of indemnity for their 
actions. The proceedings of the assemblies and the 
courts of justice, since the year 1652, in so far as 
they related to questions of property, were confirmed." 

After the death of Cromwell, further action on 
the part of the colony of Maryland became necessary. 
Consequently, on the 12th of March, 1660, its repre- 



278 THE UNITED STATES. 

sentatives — meeting in the house of one Robert Slye 
— voted themselves a lawful assembly, without de- 
pendence on any other power in the province. The 
burgesses refused to acknowledge the rights of the 
body claiming to be an upper house, and Governor 
Fendall yielded to the popular will. The representa- 
tives having settled the government, irrespective of 
Baltimore and his deputy and council, further passed 
an Act making it felony to disturb the new order of 
things. 

Maryland, in the year of the Restoration of the 
Stuarts, was thus in possession of its liberties, 
asserted and defined by representatives elected by the 
popular vote. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTEEDAM. 

IT was naturally to be expected that the Dutch, who 
were a race of navigators, would early turn their 
attention to North American exploration. 

Consequently, we find that William Barentz, a pilot 
of Amsterdam, sailed with several expeditions from 
Holland, in search of a north-east passage, towards 
the close of the sixteenth century. The first vessel, 
which was fitted out by the city of Amsterdam, left 
Holland on the 5th of June, 1 594, reached the north- 
east extremity of Nova Zembla, and returned. A second 
expedition of seven vessels was despatched in 1595, 
but too late to be successful ; a third, however, con- 
sisting of two ships, which left in May, 1596, reached 
Spitzbergen. The two vessels parted, and Barentz's 
vessel, encountering ice to the north-east of Nova 
Zembla, turned southwards. Barentz and his crew 
were frozen up in Ice Haven, where they spent a 
terrible winter. In June, 1597, they were able to 
leave in two boats, and Barentz died shortly after- 
wards. The Barentz Sea, between the European 
mainland and Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and Franz 
Josef Land, still preserves the name of this adventurous 
mariner. 

279t 



280 THE UNITED STATES. 

The next explorer in tliese regions was the dis- 
tinguished English navigator Henry Hudson, of whom 
little is known until 1607, when he commanded the 
last expedition under the Muscovy Company. He 
was instructed to proceed directly across the Pole, but 
he was stopped by the ice. On a second expedition 
he penetrated as far as Nova Zembla, but was again 
blocked by the ice and compelled to return. Being 
invited to the Netherlands, Hudson undertook a third 
voyage in 1609 from Amsterdam, at the expense of 
the Dutch East India Company. Abandoning all 
hope of finding a north-east passage, he sailed for 
Davis Strait, then steered southwards, and discovered 
the mouth of the river which now bears his name, 
sailing up its waters for one hundred and fifty miles. 
Hudson's last voyage was undertaken in 1610, when, 
in the Discoverie, of seventy tons, he reached Greenland 
in June. Turning towards the west, he discovered 
the strait now known as Hudson Strait, passed 
through it, and entered the great bay now known as 
Hudson Bay. Here he resolved to winter, but food 
fell short, and the men mutinied. Hudson was cast 
adrift, with eight others, on Midsummer Day, 1611. 
The leading mutineers perished miserably in a scuffle 
with savages, and the survivors, after great suffering, 
landed safely on English shores. 

Although Hudson's discoveries were of great 
importance, they were regarded with comparative 
indifference by the Netherlanders as a whole. The 
States-General placed commercial results before any 
others. When enquiries from various Dutch cities 
reached them, they simply gave information about the 



. SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 281 

situation of the new river and the best rente to reach 
it. So also the East India Company by no means 
regarded the discovery by Hudson of the Great River 
of the Mountains as a set-off for his failure to find the 
north-east passage. But when Hudson's vessel, the 
Half -moon — which he used in the expedition of 1609 
— reached Amsterdam, after being detained in England, 
the Company engaged part of her crew to go out to the 
great bay and river in a vessel of their own, and trade 
with the natives for furs, etc. The experiment proved 
a very profitable one, and a brisk trade began to 
spring up, which ultimately grew into an important 
branch of commerce. 

Little round-prowed Dutch vessels soon became 
familiar objects to the Indians, as the explorers sailed 
up the Hudson in quest of trade. In the course of 
a few years, Manhattan Island formed the principal 
station for the collection of peltries, etc., and their 
shipment to home ports. Unsuccessful efforts were 
made to raise European goats on the island, which 
boasted of a fort and several small buildings. The 
Dutch began to call the river the Mauritius, after the 
Stadtholder Maurice of Orange. In addition to trading 
on the river, the Netherlanders included in their opera- 
tions the bays of what is now New Jersey, as well 
as the coast as far south as Delaware Bay, besides 
opening up fresh stations. 

" Foremost in these enterprises," observes one his- 
torian, " were Hendrick Christaensen, Adriaen Block, 
and Cornells Jacobsen May, three Dutch captains, 
who, by the end of the four years following Hudson's 
voyage, had grown most familiar with the new region, 



282 THE UNITED STATES. 

and had engaged their ships most successfully in its 
trade. Christaensen, who by that time had made ten 
voyages to the river, bnilt the first great trading post 
upon it, in 1614 — Fort Nassau, on Castle Island, close 
by Albany — and was appointed its commander. 

" Block spent the winter of 1613-14 on Manhattan 
Island in building a yacht of sixteen tons, the Onrust 
(Restless), to take the place of his ship, the Tiger, 
which had accidentally been burned. In the spring 
he sailed eastward, passing through the rapids of 
Hell-Gate in the East River, explored Long Island 
Sound from end to end, discovered and entered the 
Quonehtacut or Connecticut River, and made his way 
up the New England coast as far as what he called 
Pye Bay — now the Bay of Nahaut— which he called 
< the limit of New Netherland.' He visited the shores 
of Narragansett Bay, and saw within it that ' Roode ' 
or 'Red' Island from which the modern State of 
Rhode Island derives its name. Martha's Vineyard 
and Nantucket the Dutch named Texel and Vieland ; 
the waters surrounding them the Zuyder Zee ; the 
island which still bears Block's name, north-east of 
Montank Point, they called ' Visscher's Hoeck.' 
Meeting Hendrick Christaensen' s ship, the Fortune, 
which had been sent to Cape Cod Bay, perhaps to take 
him on board, Block transferred the Restless to another 
skipper, Cornells Hendricksen, and sailed in the other 
vessel to Holland, adding his report to the list of 
explorations which revealed the extent and wealth of 
the new country. 

" May had seen ' Yisscher's Hoeck ' even before 
Block, and had visited the coast of Martha's Vineyard. 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 283 

But bis name is perpetuated farther south, in the 
Cape May of Southern New Jersey ; though New York 
Bay was for many years called, in his honour. Port 
May." 

On the 20th of March, 1614, the traders secured 
from the States-General a decree, in general terms, 
by which any discoverers of " new passages, havens, 
lands, or places " should have " the exclnsive right of 
navigating to the same for four voyages," provided 
they reported their discoveries within fourteen days 
after their return to Holland. Some months later, 
they appeared before the Assembly of the States, and 
asked for a more extended protection and a special 
charter, pointing out the expense and the dangers 
attending their labours. A charter was consequently 
granted on the 11th of October, in which the name 
" New Netherland " was first officially applied to the 
American region " between New France and Virginia, 
being the sea-coasts between 40° and 45°." A company 
was formed called the New Netherland Company, and 
to it was granted the monopoly of the trade for three 
years, from the 1st of Janaary, 1615. No other Dutch 
citizens were permitted to frequent or navigate the 
newly discovered lands, havens, or places, " on penalty 
of the confiscation of the vessel and cargo, besides 
a fine of fifty thousand Netherlands ducats." 

The company cared little for exploration, but made 
the most of the commercial advantages allotted to 
them for the brief period of their charter. Friendly 
relations were maintained with the Indians, though 
the traders promptly executed a native who was guilty 
of the murder of Hendrick Christaensen. All went 



284 THE UNITED STATES, 

well, and trade increased, while the interest of Holland 
was naturally kept alive in the company's operations. 
A trading honse and defences were erected at Fort 
Nassau, and from this place the director, Jacob 
Eelkens, despatched ever-increasing stores of furs down 
the river to Manhattan. His assistants made frequent 
expeditions into the great western forests to trade for 
skins with new Indian tribes. One party, consisting 
of three men, reached the upper waters of the Dela- 
ware; but on descending the stream to the mouth of 
the Schuylkill, were seized by the Indians and held 
as prisoners. They were not slain or injured, however. 

As soon as the Manhattan traders heard of their 
detention, they sent Cornelis Hendricks en in the yacht 
Restless to go and ransom them, Hendricksen ex- 
plored the shores of Delaware Bay and River, rescued 
the captives, and returned with glowing accounts that 
the river banks were covered with grape-vines and 
abounded in game. He reported, too, that he had 
opened up a trade with the natives for seal-skins. 
Hendricksen's discoveries completed the survey of the 
whole coast belonging to the New Netherland Com- 
pany ; and on the strength of his discoveries the 
company applied for a new special charter, but the 
States-General were too reluctant to encroach upon 
the territories of Virginia to grant it. 

In 1617 Jacob Eelkens concluded the first formal 
treaty with the Indians ; but on the 1st of January, 
1618, the New Netherland Company's charter expired, 
and all efforts to renew i^t failed. Traders, however, 
still continued to use their old privileges without 
molestation or competition. But Holland was now 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTEKDAM. 285 

fully awake to the value of the territories in North 
America, especially for extending Dutch commercial 
relations abroad. The result was that, in 1621, the 
great West India Company was incorporated, and 
chartered by the States-General with powers almost 
equal to those of the Eastern Company. The patent 
of the West India Company, " with that assumption 
of authority which belonged to the great monopolies 
of the time, forbade any and all inhabitants of the 
United Netherlands, for twenty-two years after the 
1st of July, 1621, to sail to the coast of Africa 
between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good 
Hope, or to those of America between the Banks 
of Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan, except 
in the service of the West India Company. In the 
Dutch territory in America its power was practically 
absolute. It could make treaties, appoint governing 
officers from the highest to the lowest, build and 
garrison forts, administer justice, exercise, in fact, 
all the functions of a government, and was only 
responsible to the States-General for its acts as shown 
through its own reports. Its central board of nineteen 
delegates, drawn from its five chambers of directors in 
Amsterdam, Middleburg, Dordrecht, North Holland, 
Friesland and Groningen, together with a representa- 
tive of the States-General, sat at their council-board 
at home, and ruled a territory immeasurably greater 
than their little state built upon the marshes ; a 
small army of officials and a considerable merchant 
fleet carried out their orders ; thirty-two vessels of 
war and eighteen armed yachts were at their service 
in case they needed defence. 



286 THE UNITED STATES. 

" It was to the Amsterdam chamber of this powerful 
corporation that the affairs of all the region of 
New Netherland were given in charge ; and by the 
authority of their patent the West India Company 
formally ' took possession ' of the country in the 
spring of 1622. The enterprise of private traders had 
not been discontinued in the meantime ; for the fur 
trade had been so vigorously prosecuted along the 
coasts to the south and east of Manhattan, and even 
in the bays near which the New English colony of 
Plymouth had been founded, that Sir Dudley Carleton, 
King James's ambassador at The Hague, had 
entered a protest against the encroachment. But this 
remonstrance went through a process which would 
now be called ' stifled in committee ' ; for it was 
referred first to one branch of the Netherlands Govern- 
ment and then to another, each professing ignorance 
of any actual Dutch establishment in America, until 
at last the subject was fairly forgotten. At all events, 
it was not permitted to interfere with the West 
India Company's plans ; these went steadily on, and 
now took such shape as for the first time promised 
the new territory a permanent population, and began 
to change it from being the resort of transient traders 
to the site of settled and lasting colonies." 

In March, 1623, the ship New Netherland left 
Amsterdam with the first colonists. These were 
chiefly Walloons, Netherlanders of French origin, who 
had been driven from their homes in the southern 
provinces by the fierce religious persecution of the 
Spaniards. They now went out to their new home 
under the command of Captain Cornells Jacobsen 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 287 

May. They were landed on the west bank of the 
Mauritius or North River, as far north as where the 
fort had been on Castle Island. This was the actual 
site of Albany, now the capital of the State. Here 
they set to work with a will, erecting huts, raising 
corn, and carrying on an amicable trade with the 
Indians. This new and permanent settlement was 
named New Amsterdam. A fort was thrown up called 
Fort Orange. 

A few settlers were sent from Manhattan to the 
South Delaware River, and a number of others to 
the north of the Connecticut or Fresh River, and to 
the western end of Long Island at Walloons Bay, or 
Wallabout, as the English corrupted the name. Eight 
men were also appointed to form a trading establish- 
ment for the company at Manhattan Island. The 
settlers on the South River built a fort, and they were 
soon trading northward and eastward all along the coast 
to Narragansett Bay. By December, 1624, all was 
going on peaceably and profitably in the settlements. 

May, who was the first governor of New Amsterdam, 
was appointed in 1624 ; William Verhult, the second, 
was commissioned in 1625; and Peter Minuit, the 
third, was appointed in 1626. Minuit seems to have 
been an able and enterprising man, and it was he who 
made Manhattan what it came to be politically. He 
bought the whole island for sixty guilders, or about 
£5 of English money; but a thousand millions 
would not now buy the island on which New York 
stands. Danger of disturbances having arisen at Fort 
Orange, the plans of Minuit for Manhattan were 
assisted by his withdrawal of the colonists from the 



288 THE UNITED STATES. 

fort, leaving only a small garrison. Concentration 
was further assisted by the migration of the settlers 
on the South River to the main colony. In a short 
time a large quadrangular stone fort was constructed, 
which was called Fort Amsterdam. 

The West India Company soon began to convey 
valuable cargoes to Holland, and to bring back other 
goods and fresh settlers. The governor of New 
Amsterdam sent his secretary as a formal ambassador 
to Bradford, the Puritan governor of New England ; 
and although the latter looked askance at the new 
settlers, and at first questioned their rights, eventually 
an excellent trade sprang up in various native com- 
modities between Manhattan and Plymouth. 

By the year 1628 the Island of Manhattan had a 
population of two hundred and seventy, and the profits 
of the West India Company's fur trade had more than 
doubled. The colony went on prospering, and mills and 
factories began to be erected. The early settlers had 
many trials and struggles, as was the case indeed with 
all the American colonies ; and they were frequently 
engaged in conflict with the Indians. In August, 
1664, the English, under Colonel Nichols, dispossessed 
the Dutch and the Swedes, and changed the name of 
the colony to New York, Charles II. having given the 
territory to his brother the Duke of York. The city 
was confirmed to England by the Peace of Breda, 
the 24th of August, 1667; but in 1673 it was retaken 
by the Dutch, and named New Orange. In 1674, 
however, the English once more captured the city, 
and it remained henceforward in their possession 
until the War of the Revolution. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 

IN order to understand the circumstances whicli led 
a number of the English Puritans to leave their 
native land and establish themselves as settlers in New 
England, a brief sketch of the Puritan movement is 
necessary. 

It was a movement which sprang up within the 
Church of England itself. According to Fuller and 
Strype, the name of Puritan was first given — between 
1560 and 1570 — to those clergymen who refused to con- 
form to the English liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline 
as arranged by Archbishop Parker and his coadjutors. 
Fuller fixes 1564 and Strype 1569 as the date of the 
first use of the word. The Puritan clergy believed that 
the Church did not separate itself decisively enough 
from Roman Catholicism, and that it needed further 
reformation. These principles gradually spread among 
the serious portion of the laity, who likewise came to be 
distinguished by the title of Puritans. Ultimately the 
word came to be used by the Elizabethan dramatists 
and others to mean all persons who gave up the plea- 
sures of the world, and assumed a grave and strict 
habit of life. 

289 19 



290 THE UNITED STATES. 

As regards the Puritans in the Chnrch, some would 
have accepted a moderate reform in the rights, dis- 
cipline, and liturgy ; others, like Cartwright, desired to 
abolish Episcopacy altogether, and to substitute Prcs- 
byterianism ; while a third party, the Brownists, were 
uncompromising dissenters, opposed both to Presby- 
terianism and Episcopacy. The historian Hume, who 
certainly cannot be accused of undue partiality for the 
Puritans, was constrained to acknowledge that they were 
the preservers of civil and religious liberty in England. 

The first secession from the Church took place in 
1563, but the leading foreign Reformers deplored it, 
as they wished for an adjustment. Nevertheless, 
Puritan principles spread rapidly. Eobert Browne, the 
founder of the Brownists, was born about 1550 at 
Tolethorpe, in Rutlandshire. He graduated at Cam- 
bridge in 1572, and became a schoolmaster and an 
open-air preacher in London. In 1580 he began his 
campaign against the order and discipline of the Estab- 
lished Church, and soon afterwards formed a dis- 
tinct Church on apostolic and congregational principles 
at Norwich. He was imprisoned by Bishop Freake, 
but released through the influence of his kinsman 
Lord Burghley. In 1581, however, he was compelled 
to take refuge with his followers at Middleburg, in 
Holland. Browne returned to England in 1584; and 
reconciling himself to the Established Church, was 
appointed master of Stamford Grammar School in 1586, 
and rector of a Northamptonshire church in 159L 
Being of a very violent temper, when upwards of 
eighty years of age he was sent to Northampton Jail 
for an assault on a constable, and died in iail about 1633. 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHERS. 291 

But although Browne early abandoned the distinctive 
princijiles associated with his name, those principles 
made great headway, and they may be said to have 
given birth to the Independents and Congregationalists. 
As an example of the religions persecution which the 
Puritans had to undergo in Elizabeth's reign, we may 
cite the case of John Udall, a Brownist minister, who 
was tried in the year 1591 for having published a 
defence of the doctrines of the Browuists. This work 
was entitled, A Demonstration of the Discipline which 
Christ hath prescribed in His Word for the Government 
of the Church in all Times and Places until the World^s 
End. An attack on the Established Church Elizabeth 
regarded as an attack upon herself, so Udall was 
arrested for a political libel, and arraigned on a capital 
charge of felony. According to the barbarous usages 
of the time, the witnesses were not confronted with 
the prisoner, and he was not allowed to call exculpatory 
evidence. As he declined to swear that he was not 
the author of the book, his refusal was treated as a 
confession of guilt. When he was told by one of the 
judges that " a book replete with sentiments so incon- 
sistent with the established institutions tended to the 
overthrow of the State by the provocation of rebellion, 
he replied, ' My Lords, that be far from me ; for we 
teach that, reforming things amiss, if the prince will 
not consent, the weapons that subjects are to fight 
withall are repentance and prayers, patience and 
tears.' The judge offered him his life if he would 
recant ; and added, that he was now ready to pro- 
nounce sentence of death. ' And I am ready to receive 
it/ exclaimed this magnanimous man ; ' for I protest 



292 THE UNITED STATES. 

before God (not knowing that I am to live an hour), 
that the cause is good, and 1 am contented to receive 
sentence, so that I may leave it for posterity how I 
have suffered for the cause.' He was condemned to 
die ; and being still urged to submit to the Queen, he 
willingly expressed his regret that any of his writings 
should have given her offence, and disclaimed any 
such wish or intention, but firmly refused to disown 
what he believed to be truth, or to renounce liberty of 
conscience. By the interest of some powerful friends, 
a conditional pardon was obtained for him ; but before 
the terms of it could be adjusted, or the Queen pre- 
vailed on to sign it, he died in prison. Penry, Green- 
wood, Barrow, and Dennis, of whom the first two were 
clergymen, and the others laymen, were soon after 
tried on similar charges, and perished by the hands of 
the executioner. A pardon was offered to them if they 
would retract their profession; but inspired by a courage 
which no earthly motive could overcome, they clung 
to their principles, and left the care of their lives to 
Heaven. Some more were hanged for dispersing the 
writings and several for attending the discourses of 
the Brownists. Many others endured the torture of 
severe imprisonment, and numerous families were 
reduced to indigence by heavy fines." 

The two cardinal principles enunciated by the 
Brownists were these : first, if the King, or the 
magistrate under the King, refused or demurred to 
reforming the Church, the people might sever them- 
selves from the National Church, and for themselves 
individually undertake a reformation ; and, secondly, 
a Church might be gathered by a number of believers 



THE PUKITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 293 

coming together under a willing covenant made among 
themselves, without civil authority. 

Among those accused of assisting to spread the 
doctrines of the Brownists were two persons named 
Copping and Thacker. Under the interpretation of 
the law laid down by the Lord Chief Justice of 
England, they were hanged for the felony of sedition. 
When Elizabeth was told of the calm piety of the 
martyrs, and their prayers for herself as they went 
to their death, her heart for a time relented. But 
the persecuting spirit soon returned again, and she 
had for her chief adviser Archbishop Whitgift, who 
governed the Church with a rod of iron, and insisted 
upon subscription to points which had hitherto re- 
mained in abeyance. 

In the year 1593 a new and yet severer law was 
enacted against the Puritans. These religious re- 
formers were not only increasing in numbers every 
day, bnt were furnishing so many votaries " of the 
Brownist or independent doctrines, that, in the debate 
which took place in the House of Commons on the 
introduction of this measure. Sir Walter Raleigh 
stated, that the numbers of professed Brownists alone 
then amounted to twenty thousand. The humane 
arguments, however, which he derived from this con- 
sideration were unavailing to prevent the passing of 
a law which enacted, that any person above sixteen 
years of age who obstinately refused, during the space 
of a month, to attend public worship in a legitimate 
parochial Church should be committed to prison ; 
that, if he persisted three months in his refusal, he 
must abjure the realm ; and that, if he either refused 



294 THE UNITED STATES. 

this condition or returned after banishment, he should 
suffer death as a felon. If this act was not more 
fortunate than its predecessors in accomplishing the 
main object of checking the growth of Puritan 
principles, it promoted at least the subordinate pur- 
pose of driving a great many of the professors of 
ecclesiastical indei)endency out of England. A 
numerous society of these fugitives was collected 
about the close of the sixteenth century at Amster- 
dam, where they flourished in peace and piety for 
upwards of a hundred years. Others retired to various 
Protestant states on the Continent, whence with fond, 
delusive hopes they expected to be recalled to their 
native land on the accession of Elizabeth's successor. 
The remainder continued in England to fluctuate 
between the evasion and the violation of the law, — 
cherishing with their principles a stern impatience, 
generated by the galling restraints that impeded the 
free expression of them ; and yet retained in sub- 
mission by the hope which, in common with the 
exiles, they indulged of a mitigation of their sufferings 
on the demise of the Queen." 

But the hopes indulged of James I. on his accession 
proved fallacious. There seemed nothing before the 
Puritans but emigration, in order to enjoy liberty of 
conscience. John Penry, the Welsh martyr, who had 
taken degrees both at Oxford and Cambridge, had 
prophetically said just before his death, " Take my 
poor desolate widow and my mess of fatherless and 
friendless orphans with you into exile ; you shall yet 
find days of peace and rest, if you continue faith- 
ful." Francis Johnson, another persecuted clergyman, 



THE PURITANS— LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 295 

eventually gathered his exiled flock into a Churcli 
at Amsterdam, where it shone as an example for at 
least a century. William Brewster, of the Scrooby 
Manor-house, Nottinghamshire, procured good Puritan 
preachers, and sent them to all places in the vicinity 
of Scrooby at his own expense. He had held a small 
office under Queen Elizabeth, but he had been shocked 
by the tyranny of the bishops against godly preachers 
and people. 

The Hampton Court Conference was held in January, 
1604, when an attempt was made to arrive at an 
amicable understanding between the Church and the 
Puritans. But it proved abortive, for James strenu- 
ously upheld the complete authority of the Church of 
England. " I will have none of that liberty as to 
ceremonies," he said ; " I will have one doctrine, one 
discipline, one religion in substance and in ceremony." 
The erewhile Presbyterian thus became at once a 
full-blown Episcopalian. When the Puritans desired 
permission to assemble occasionally, and to enjoy the 
liberty of free discussion, the King peremptorily stifled 
the request ; and turning to the bishops, he remarked, 
" I will make them conform, or I will harry them out 
of the land, or else worse, only hang them ; that's all." 
The necessity of subscrijjtion was enforced, and a time 
set within which all clergymen should conform, or be 
removed from their benefices. 

Whitgift died six weeks after the close of the 
conference, and he was succeeded as Archbishop by 
Bancroft, who required conformity with unrelenting 
rigour, while the King issued a proclamation of equal 
severity. In the year 1604 alone three hundred 



296 THE UNITED STATES. 

Puritan ministers were silenced, inaprisoned, or exiled. 
Then, by the Canons of the Convocation of 1606, every 
doctrine of popular rights was denied, and the supe- 
riority of the King to the Parliament and the laws 
asserted. Church and monarch reigned for the time 
supreme. 

But in this same year, 1606, " a poor people " in the 
north of England, " in towns and villages of Notting- 
hamshire, Lincolnshire, and the borders of Yorkshire, 
in and near Scrooby, had ' become enlightened by the 
Word of God. Presently they were both scoffed and 
scorned by the profane multitude ; and their ministers, 
urged with the yoke of subscription,' were, by the 
increase of troubles, led ' to see further,' that not only 
Hhe beggarly ceremonies were monuments of idolatry,' 
but also ' that the lordly power of the prelates ought 
not to be submitted to.' Many of them, therefore, 
' whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly 
zeal for His truth,' resolved, ' whatever it might cost 
them, to shake off the anti-Christian bondage, and, as 
the Lord's free people, to join themselves by a covenant 
into a Church estate in the fellowship of the Gospel.' 
Of the same faith with Calvin, heedless of acts of 
Parliament, they rejected ' the offices and callings, 
the courts and canons,' of bishops ; and renouncing 
all obedience to human authority in spiritual things, 
asserted for themselves an unlimited and never-ending 
right to make advances in truth, and ' walk in all the 
ways which God had made known or should make 
known to them.' 

" ' The Gospel is every man's right ; and it is not to 
be endured that any one should be kept therefrom. 



THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHERS. 297 

But the Evangel is an open doctrine ; it is bound to no 
place, and moves along freely under heaven, like the 
star which ran in the sky to show the wizards from 
the East where Christ was born. Do not dispute with 
the prince for place. Let the community choose their 
own pastor, and support him out of their own estates. 
If the prince will not suffer it, let the pastor flee into 
another land, and let those go with him who will, as 
Christ teaches.' Such was the counsel of Luther on 
reading ' the twelve articles ' of the insurgent peasants 
of Swabia. What Luther advised, what Calvin planned, 
was carried into effect by this rural community of 
Englishmen." 

The Reformed Church chose as their leading minister 
John Robinson, a godly, modest, and learned man, 
while William Brewster was their ruling elder. They 
met to worship God as opportunity offered, but always 
under great hardships. At length they determined to 
go into exile, and Holland was chosen as a sanctuary. 
Brewster had once served as a diplomatist in the Low 
Countries. The first attempt of this Puritan band 
to leave England, in 1607, was circumvented, and a 
number of them were imprisoned. 

In the spring of 1608 the design was renewed, an 
unfrequented heath in Lincolnshire, near the mouth 
of the Humber, being chosen as the place of meeting. 
The authorities again interfered, but in the end 
Robinson and Brewster and their followers were 
allowed to leave their native land. They arrived in 
Amsterdam in 1608 ; but even now their wanderings 
were not at an end. " They knew they were PUgrims,^^ 
and therefore possessed their sovils in patience. 



298 THE UNITED STATES. 

Removing to Leyden in 1609, the exiles at last 
found a resting-place, where they were permitted to 
establish themselves in peace under the ministry of 
their pastor, John Robinson. " Being ' careful to keep 
their word, and painful and diligent in their callings,' 
they attained ' a comfortable condition, grew in the 
gifts and grace of the S[>iritof God, and lived together 
in peace and love and holiness.' ' Never,' said the 
magistrates of the city — ' never did we have any suit 
or accusation against any of them ' ; and but for fear 
of offence to King James, they would have met with 
public favour. ' Many came there from different 
parts of England, so as they grew a great congrega- 
tion.' ' Such was the humble zeal and fervent love 
of this people towards God and His ways, and their 
single-heartedness and sincere affection one towards 
another,' that they seemed to come surpassingly near 
' the primitive pattern of the first Churches,' A 
clear and well-written apology of their discipline was 
published by Robinson, who, also, in the controversy 
on free-will, as the champion of orthodoxy, ' began 
to be terrible to the Arminians,' and disputed in the 
University with such power that, as his friends assert, 
' the truth had a famous victory.' " 

But the Arminian controversy continued to rage 
with such fury that the Grand Pensionary Barneveldt 
was barbarously executed, while the learned Grotius 
was imprisoned. The English exiles lamented the 
cruelty and intolerance by which the bigoted repre- 
sentatives of Calvinism were thus disgraced, and they 
came to the conclusion that they might combine the 
indulgence of their patriotic feelings as Englishmen 



THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHERS. 299 

with the propagation of their religious principles, by 
establishing themselves in some distant quarter of the 
British dominions. After many days of earnest prayer 
for the counsel and direction of Heaven, the Pilgrims 
unanimously determined to transport themselves and 
their families to North America. 

How was the transport across the Atlantic to be 
accomplished ? This was a matter of difjficulty. They 
wished to go to the most northern parts of Virginia, 
and in 1617 John Carver and Robert Cashman went to 
England to obtain the consent of the London Company. 
They bore with them articles of religion, promising 
" obedience in all things, active if the thing com- 
manded be not against God's Word, or passive if 
it be " ; but they denied all power to ecclesiastical 
bodies, unless it were given by the temporal magistrate. 
They pledged themselves to preserve unity of spirit 
in peace with all men. They found encouragement 
from the London Company, and could have obtained 
a patent at once through the influence of Sir Edwin 
Sandys, had not the envoys decided first to consult 
the pilgrims at Leyden. 

However, on the 15th of December, 1617, the latter 
transmitted a formal and almost unanimous request, 
through Robinson and Brewster. The messengers, 
fortified by their reception at the hands of the Virginia 
Company, now petitioned the King for liberty of 
religion, to be confirmed under the sovereign's broad 
seal. Unfortunately, they found a powerful opponent 
in the great philosopher and statesman. Lord Bacon. 
He had shown such favour to settlers in Ireland and 
Virginia, that the Pilgrims naturally looked to him 



300 THE UNITED STATES. 

for support. But Bacon the statesman was not so 
great a man as Bacon the scholar. He became a 
subservient courtier like the rest, and said, " Discipline 
by bishops is fittest for monarchy of all others. The 
tenets of separatists and sectaries are full of schism, 
and inconsistent with monarchy. The King will 
beware of Anabaptists, Brownists, and others of their 
kinds ; a like connivency sets them on fire." 

So, when the envoys were asked at James's council- 
board who should make their ministers, and they 
replied " the Church," without episcopal ordination, 
their mission was in danger. The King liked the 
idea of extending British territory and British trade, 
but he liked not this religious independence at all, 
so referred the matter to the prelates of Canterbury 
and London. But in 1619 things became brighter. 
Sir Edwin Sandys was elected treasurer of the London 
Virginia Company, and a patent was granted to the 
Pilgrims. As it was made out in the name of one 
who failed to accompany the expedition, however, it 
was never of any service. Moreover, the Pilgrims 
had not sufficient capital to carry out their own 
schemes. 

Various plans were suggested for the fitting out 
of the expedition. The Dutch were appealed to, but 
failed to respond. The West India Company then 
ofiered to transport the emigrants free of charge, if 
they would go out solely under their auspices. The 
Virginia Company were also willing to do what they 
could. Finally, the emigrants resolved to trust to 
their own resources and the help of private friends. 
" The fisheries," remarks Bancroft, " had commended 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 301 

American expeditions to English merchants ; and the 
agents from Leyden were able to form a partnership 
between their employers and men of business in 
London. The services of each emigrant were rated 
as a capital of £10, and belonged to the company ; 
all profits were to be reserved till the end of seven 
3'ears, when the whole amount, and all houses and 
lands, gardens and fields, were to be divided among the 
shareholders according to their respective interests. 
The London merchant, who risked £100, would receive 
for his money tenfold more than the penniless labourer 
for his services. This arrangement threatened a seven 
years' check to the pecuniary prosperity of the com- 
munity ; yet, as it did not interfere with civil rights 
or religion, it did not intimidate the resolved." 

Everything was now made ready for the departure 
of the emigrants. Two vessels were provided, one of 
one hundred and eighty tons, bearing the now historic 
name of the Mayrfiower ; and the other the Speedwell^ 
of sixty tons. As the ships could not hold anything 
like all the colony at Leyden, Robinson remained at 
home with a considerable portion of the body; while 
Brewster, the governing elder, went forth to America, 
with such of the youngest and strongest as freely 
offered themselves. 

There was a most affecting scene at Leyden, when 
the Pilgrims, as was their custom in everything, 
commended themselves to God, and held a solemn 
fast. Robinson delivered a farewell address, breath- 
ing such a noble sj)irit of Christian candour and 
liberality as was then almost unknown in the 
world. 



302 THE UNITED STATES. 

" Brethren," said this traly great Christian — for snch 
he was, having drunk deeply of his Master's spirit — 
" we are now quickly to part from one another ; and 
whether I may ever live to see your faces on earth any 
more, the God of heaven only knows ; but whether the 
Lord has appointed that or no, I charge you, before 
God and His blessed angels, that you follow me no 
farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

"If God reveal anything to you, by any other 
instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as ever 
you were to receive any truth by my ministry ; for I 
am verily persuaded, I am very confident, the Lord 
has more truth yet to break forth out of His holy 
Word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the 
condition of the Reformed Churches, who are come to 
a period in religion, and will go at present no farther 
than the instruments of their reformation. The 
Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther 
said; whatever part of His will our good God has 
revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace 
it ; and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they 
were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not 
all things. 

" This is a misery much to be lamented ; for though 
they were burning and shining lights in their times, 
yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of 
God ; but were they now living, would be as willing 
to embrace farther light, as that which they first 
received. I beseech you remember it, 'tis an article 
of your Church covenant, that you he ready to receive 
whatever truth shall be made known to you from the 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 303 

written Word of God. Remember that, and every 
other article of yom* sacred covenant. 

" But I must herewithal exhort you to take heed 
what you receive as truth. Examine it, consider it, 
and compare it with other Scriptures of truth before 
you receive it ; for 'tis not possible the Christian 
world should come so lately out of antichristian dark- 
ness, and that perfection of knowledge should break 
forth at once. 

" I must also advise you to abandon, avoid, and 
shake off the name of Browuist ; 'tis a mere nick- 
name, and a brand for the making religion, and the 
professors of it, odious to the Christian world." 

The closing scene in Holland was thus described by 
Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrims : " When the 
ship was ready to carry us away, the brethren that 
stayed at Leyden, having again solemnly sought the 
Lord with us and for us, feasted us that were to go, 
at our pastor's house, being large ; where we refreshed 
ourselves, after tears, with singing of psalms, making 
joyful melody in our hearts, as well as with the voice, 
there being many of the congregation very expert in 
music ; and indeed it was the sweetest melody that 
ever mine ears heard. After this, they accompanied 
us to Delft Haven, where we went to embark, and 
then feasted us again ; and after prayer performed 
by our pastor, when a flood of tears was poured out, 
they accompanied us to the ship, but were not able 
to speak one to another for the abundance of sorrow 
to part. But we only, going abroad, gave them a 
volley of small shot and three pieces of ordnance ; 
and so, lifting up our hands to each other, and our 



304 THE UNITED STATES. 

hearts for eacli other to the Lord our God, we 
departed." 

Such were the good and brave men whom a bigoted 
King and a relentless hierarchy drove from their native 
land to seek freedom of conscience on alien shores. 

The Mmj/lower and Speedwell made first for South- 
ampton ; and after waiting there for a fortnight for 
the completion of all arrangements in connection 
with the expedition, the vessels sailed from South- 
ampton on the 5th of August, 1620, for America. The 
colonists numbered in all seventy-four men and twenty- 
eight women. It was found soon after starting that 
the smaller vessel needed repairs, and the expedition 
put into Dartmouth for that purpose. Again they 
set forth ; but after eight days the captain of the 
Speedwell and his companions became discouraged 
by the dangers of the enterprise, and asserted that 
the ship was too weak for the service. The expedition 
put back into Plymouth, and the Speedwell was dis- 
missed, which " was very grievous and discouraging." 
Then the resolute little band remaining, amounting in 
all to one hundred and two souls, went on board the 
Mmjfiower, and on the 6th day of September, 1620, 
the Pilgrims finally left Plymouth, and the shores of 
England, for a new world. 

Hudson's River was the intended destination of the 
emigrants, who proposed to found their settlement 
upon its banks ; but the Dutch claimed a prior right 
to this territory, and the English settlers were con- 
ducted to the most barren part of Massachusetts. On 
the 9th of November, after a boisterous voyage of 
sixty-three days, the May/lower cast anchor in the 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 305 

harbour of Cape Cod. This region was not only 
beyond the precincts of their grant, but beyond the 
territories of the Company from which the grant was 
derived. Before landing, the emigrants discussed the 
form of their future government ; and as there were 
some not too well affected towards unity and concord, 
on the 11th they formed themselves into a body politic 
by this solemn voluntary compact : 

" In the name of God, amen ; we, whose names are 
underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, 
King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God, 
and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of 
our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony 
in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, 
solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and 
one of another, covenant and combine ourselves to- 
gether into a civil body politic, for our better ordering 
and preservation, and furtherance of the ends afore- 
said ; and, by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and 
frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, con- 
stitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be 
thought most convenient for the general good of the 
colony. Unto which we promise all due submission 
and obedience." 

This instrument, which signalized the birth of con- 
stitutional liberty in the United States, was signed 
by all the men in the emigrant body, and John 
Carver was unanimously chosen governor for the 
first year. 

The American orator, Edward Everett, in an elo- 
quent centennial address, thus described the voyage 
and landing of the Mwjflower : 

20 



306 THE UNITED STATES. 

"The feeble company of Pilgrims is not to be 
marshalled by gartered statesmen or mitred prelates. 
Fleets will not be despatched to convoy the little band, 
nor armies to protect it. Had there been honours to 
be won, or pleasures to be enjoyed, or plunder to be 
grasped, hungry courtiers, midsummer friends, godless 
adventurers, would have eaten out the heart of the 
enterprise. Silken Buckinghams and Somersets would 
have blasted it with their patronage. But, safe amidst 
their unenvied perils, strong in their inoffensive weak- 
ness, rich in their untempting poverty, the patient 
fugitives are permitted to pursue unmolested the 
thorny paths of tribulation ; and, landed at last on 
the unfriendly shore, the host of God, in the frozen 
mail of December, encamp around the dwellings of 
the just. 

stern famine guards the solitary coast, 
And winter barricades the realms of frost. 

" While Bacon is attuning the sweetest strains of his 
honeyed eloquence to soothe the dull ear of a crowned 
pedant, and his great rival, only less obsequious, is 
on his knees to deprecate the royal displeasure, the 
future founders of the new Republic beyond the sea 
are training up for their illustrious mission, in ob- 
scurity, hardship, and weary exile in a foreign land. 

" And now — for the fulness of time is come — let us 
go up once more, in imagination, to yonder hill, and 
look out upon the November scene. That single dark 
speck, just discernible through the perspective glass, 
on the waste of waters, is the fated vessel. The 
storm moans through her tattered canvas as she 



THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 307 

creeps, almost sinking, to her anchorage in Province- 
town Harbour, and there she lies with her treasures, 
not of silver and gold (for of these she has none), but 
of courage, of patience, of zeal, of high spiritual 
daring. As often as I dwell in imagination on this 
scene ; when I consider the condition of the May Mower, 
utterly incapable, as she was, of living through another 
gale ; when I survey the terrible front presented by 
our coast to the navigator who, unacquainted with its 
channels and roadsteads, should approach it in the 
stormy season, — I dare not call it a mere piece of good 
fortune, that the general north and south wall of the 
shore of New England should be broken by this extra- 
ordinary projection of the cape, running out into the 
ocean a hundred miles, as if on purpose to receive 
and encircle the precious vessel. As I now see her, 
freighted with the destinies of a continent, barely 
escaped from the perils of the deep, approaching the 
shore precisely where the broad sweep of this most 
remarkable headland presents almost the only point 
at which, for hundreds of miles, she could, with any 
ease, have made a harbour, and this, perhaps, the 
very best on the seaboard, I feel my spirit raised 
above the sphere of mere natural agencies. I see the 
mountains of New England rising from their rocky 
thrones. They rush forward into the ocean, setting 
down as they advance ; and there they range them- 
selves as a mighty bulwark around the Heaven-directed 
vessel. Yes, the everlasting God Himself stretches 
out the arm of His mercy and His power, in substantial 
manifestations, and gathers the meek company of His 
worshippers as in the hollow of His hand." 



308 THE UNITED STATES. 

The early history of the colonists was full of hard- 
ships. They seemed to be shnt out from the whole 
world, for the nearest French settlement was at Port 
Royal, and the English plantation in Virginia was 
five hundred miles distant. The weather was already 
unusually severe, and winter was at hand. The vessel's 
shallop was unshipped, but it was found to need serious 
repairs. Weary of delay. Miles Standish and Bradford, 
with some others, made an unsuccessful expedition 
inland. The first voyage made by the shallop was 
likewise a failure, and some who went in her contracted 
their death through the intense cold and frost. A 
small quantity of Indian maize was discovered on 
shore, but little else except Indian graves and a few 
untenanted wigwams. 

On the 6th of December the shallop again went 
out, with Carver, Bradford, Standish, Winslow, and 
fourteen or fifteen others, including seamen. The 
spray of the sea froze as it fell on the explorers, and 
made their clothes like coats of iron. At night they 
reached Billingsgate Point, at the bottom of the Bay 
of Cape Cod, on the western shore of Wellfleet Harbour. 
Next day the company divided, but no suitable place 
for a settlement was found, and the whole party met 
again at night, and encamped on the shore near 
Namskeket, or Great Meadow Creek. 

Next day the settlers were attacked by the Indians, 
but no serious consequences ensued, and they pursued 
their journey along the coast for a distance of nearly 
fifty miles. After some hours a terrible storm arose, 
and the shallop was nearly cast away, while her 
inmates were almost blinded by snow and rain. The 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 309 

pilot nearly ran the boat into a cove full of breakers ; 
but this clanger was averted, and grateful shelter was 
found under the lee of a small neck of land. With 
some difficulty a fire was kindled on the shore, and 
the night passed in painful expectancy. As the day 
broke the place of shelter was seen to be a little island 
within the entrance of a harbour. Next day was the 
Christian Sabbath, and the Pilgrims passed it in all 
reverence. 

Monday, the 11th of December, 1620, Old Style, is a 
day ever memorable in the history of the United States. 
On that date the Pilgrims landed at a place afterwards 
included within the province of Massachusetts, to which 
they gave the name of New Plymouth, in commemora- 
tion of the town with which their last recollections of 
England were associated. The rock first trodden by 
the emigrants now bears an inscription recording the 
fact, and the day of landing is annually honoured as 
the origin of New England and the planting of its 
institutions. 

The site being found favourable for a settlement, the 
little Mayflower was safely brought into harbour on 
the 15th of December. The settlers had an onerous 
task before them ; but they were one in heart, and a 
thoroughly democratic and Christian body, with prin- 
ciples of government already well established. Daniel 
Webster, the great American orator, finely said on this 
head, in a discourse on the settlement of New England: 
" Our fathers came hither to a land from which they 
were never to retarn. Hither they had brought, and 
here they were to fix, their hopes, their attachments, 
and their objects. Some natural tears they shed as 



310 THE UNITED STATES. 

tliey left the pleasant abodes of their fathers, and some 
emotions they suppressed when the white cliffs of their 
native country, now seen for the last time, grew dim 
to their sight. They were acting, however, upon a 
resolution not to be changed. With whatever stifled 
regrets, with whatever occasional hesitation, with what- 
ever appalling apprehensions, which must sometimes 
arise with force to shake the firmest purpose, they had 
yet committed themselves to Heaven and the elements ; 
and a thousand leagues of water soon interposed to 
separate them for ever from the region which gave 
them birth. A new existence awaited them here ; and 
when they saw these shores, rough, cold, barbarous, 
and barren as then they were, they beheld their country. 
That mixed and strong feeling, which we call love of 
country, and which is in general never extinguished 
in the heart of man, grasped and embraced its proper 
object here. Whatever constitutes country, except the 
earth and fhe sun, all the moral causes of aifection and 
attachment which operate upon the heart, they had 
brought with them to their new abode. Here were 
now their families and friends, their homes and their 
property. Before they reached the shore, they had 
established the elements of a social system, and at a 
much earlier period had settled their forms of religious 
worship. At the moment of their landing, therefore, 
they possessed institutions of government and institu- 
tions of religion : and friends and families, and social 
and religious institutions, established by consent, 
founded on choice and preference, how nearly do these 
fill up our whole idea of country ? The morning that 
beamed on the first night of their repose saw the 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 311 

Pilgrims already established in their country. There 
were political institutions, and civil liberty, and re- 
ligions worship. Poetry has fancied nothing in the 
wanderings of heroes so distinct and characteristic. 
Here was man indeed unprotected and unprovided for, 
on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness, but it 
was politic, intelligent, and educated man. Every- 
thing was civilized but the physical world. Institu- 
tions containing in substance all that ages had done 
for human government were established in a forest. 
Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature ; 
and, more than all, a government and a country were 
to commence with the very first foundations laid under 
the divine light of the Christian religion. Happy 
auspices of a happy futurity I Who would wish that 
his country's existence had otherwise begun ? Who 
would desire the power of going back to the ages of 
fable ? Who would wish for an origin obscured in the 
darkness of antiquity ? Who would wish for other 
emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other orna- 
ments of her genealogy, than to be able to say that 
her first existence was with intelligence, her first 
breath the inspirations of liberty, her first principle 
the truth of divine religion ? " 

Early in January, 1621, the colonists began to build, 
but their exertions to erect suitable dwellings were 
obstructed for a time by the hostile attacks of neigh- 
bouring Indians, who had not forgotten the provocations 
received from previous explorers. After the Indians 
had been successfully repulsed, sickness — caused by 
scarcity of provisions and the increasing horrors of 
the season — aiflicted the colonists with a calamity 



312 THE UNITED STATES. 

more fatal to their health and security than the perils 
of war. 

The historians Mather, Neal, Grahame, and others 
furnish painful pictures of the sufferings of the 
colonists. More than one-half of their number, in- 
cluding John Carver, their first governor, "perished 
by hunger or disease before the return of spring ; and, 
during the whole of the winter, only a few were 
capable of providing for themselves, or rendering 
assistance to the rest. But hope and virtue survived, 
and, rising in vigour beneath the pressure of ac- 
cumulated sufferings, surmounted and ennobled every 
circumstance of distress. Those who retained their 
strength became the servants of the weak, the afilicted, 
and the dying ; and none distinguished himself more 
in this humane employment than Carver, the governor. 
He was a man of large estate, but more enlarged 
benevolence; he had spent his whole fortune on the 
colonial project ; and now, willingly contributing his 
life to its accomplishment, he exhausted a feeble body 
in laboriously discharging the humblest offices of 
kindness and service to the sick. He was succeeded 
by William Bradford, who, inheriting the merit and 
the popularity of his predecessor, was re-elected to the 
same office for many successive years — notwithstanding 
his own earnest remonstrance, that, if his office were an 
honour, it should be shared by his fellow-citizens, and, 
if it were a burden, the weight of it should not always 
be imposed upon him. When the distress of the 
colony was at its height, the approach of a powerful 
Indian chief with his followers seemed to portend the 
utter destruction of the colonists; but, happily, in 



THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 313 

the train of this personage was the ancient guest 
and friend of the English, Squanto, who eagerly and 
successfnllj^ laboured to mediate a good understanding 
between them and his countrymen. He afterwards 
cancelled the merit of this useful service, and en- 
deavoured to magnify his own importance by fabricating 
charges of plots and conspiracies against some of the 
neighbouring tribes, while at the same time he main- 
tained an empire of terror over these tribes by secretly 
assuring them that the English were in possession of 
a cask filled with the plague, which only his influence 
prevented them from setting abroad for the destruction 
of the Indians. But before he resorted to this mis- 
chievous policy the colonists had become independent of 
his services. His friendship with the English was never 
entirely dissolved ; and on his death-bed soon after, 
he desired Governor Bradford to pray for him, that he 
might go to the Englishman's God in heaven. Some 
of the neighbouring tribes from time to time made 
alarming demonstrations of hostility, but they were at 
length completely overawed by the courage and resolu- 
tion of Captain Miles Standish, a gallant and skilful 
officer, who, with a handful of men, was always ready 
to encounter their strongest force, and anticipate their 
most rapid movements." 

On the 22nd of March, 1621,Massassoit — the greatest 
Indian chief of the country, and sachem of the tribe 
possessing the land north of Narragansett Bay, between 
the rivers of Providence and Taunton — came to visit 
the Pilgrims, who, with their wives and children, were 
now only fifty in number. A friendly treaty was 
concluded, by which both parties promised to abstain 



314 THE UNITED STATES. 

from mutual injuries and to deliver up offenders. The 
colonists were to receive assistance if attacked, and to 
render it if Massassoit should be unjustly assailed. 
This is the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in New 
England annals, and it was sacredly kept for more 
than half a century. In July new emigrants arrived 
from England, and during the same month an embassy 
from the little colony of New Plymouth to Massassoit 
succeeded in ratifying the treaty of amity, and pre- 
paring the way for a trade in furs. 

In September nine Indian chiefs subscribed an in- 
strument of submission to King James, and the British 
settlers explored the Bay of Massachusetts and Boston 
Harbour. One important native chief, named Canoni- 
cus, still maintained a hostile attitude, and in 1622 
sent a bundle of arrows, wrapped in the skin of a 
rattlesnake, as a message of hostility. He succumbed, 
however, and craved for peace when Bradford sent 
back the skin stuffed with powder and shot. 

The summer months had brought back renewed 
health to the colonists, and their numbers were re- 
cruited from time to time by successive emigrations of 
oppressed Puritans from Europe. But the additions 
fell far short of their needs ; and the colonists were 
unhappily disappointed in their expectation of the 
main reinforcement which they had looked for from 
the emigration of the remainder of the congregation 
at Leyden. Robinson, their beloved pastor, had un- 
expectedly passed away, and his stimulating example 
and counsel were no longer available. The surviving 
members of the congregation were dismayed by the 
accounts of the distresses sustained by their friends in 



THE PUKITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHEES. 315 

New England; and after the death of Robinson, the 
greater part of them joined the other English exiles 
at Amsterdam, and few had the courage to proceed to 
New Plymouth. 

Meanwhile, the colony continued to deepen the roots 
of its existence. The settlers evinced a due respect 
for the natives by purchasing from them the territory 
over which their settlement extended, but at the same 
time they neglected no precautions to defend by force, 
if needs be, what they had acquired by justice. 
Alarmed at the tidings of the massacre of their 
countrymen in Virginia, they erected a timber fort, and 
adopted other necessary measures for their security. 

Historical records show that the constitution of the 
Church which the emigrants established "was the same 
with that which had prevailed among them at Leyden ; 
and their system of civil government was founded on 
those ideas of the natural equality of men to which 
their ecclesiastical policy, so long the main object 
of their concern, had habituated their minds. The 
supreme legislative body was composed at first of all 
the freemen who were members of the Church ; and 
it was not until the year 1639 that they established 
a house of representatives. The executive power was 
committed to a governor and council annually elected 
by the members of the legislative assembly. Their 
jurisprudence was founded on the laws of England, 
with some diversity, however, in the appreciation and 
punishment of crimes, wherein they approximated 
more nearly to the Mosaic institutions. Considering 
the protection of morals more important than the 
preservation of wealth, they punished fornication with 



816 THE UNITED STATES. 

flogging and adultery with death, while on forgery 
they inflicted only a moderate fine. The clearing and 
cultivation of the ground, fishing, and the curing of 
fish for exportation formed the temporal occupations 
of the colonists. The peculiarity of their situation 
naturally led them, like the Virginians, for some 
time to throw all their property into a common stock, 
and, like members of one family, to carry on every 
work of industry by their joint labour for the public 
behoof. But the religious zeal which promoted this 
self-denying policy was unable to overcome the diffi- 
culties which must always attend it, and which are 
peculiarly aggravated in a society deriving its principle 
of increment not so much from internal growth as 
from the confluence of strangers. About three years 
after the foundation of New Plymouth, it was judged 
proper to introduce separation of possessions, though 
the full right of separate property was not admitted 
till a much later period ; and even that change is 
represented as having produced a great and manifest 
improvement in the industry of the people. The slow 
increase which, for a considerable period of time, the 
population of the colony exhibited has been ascribed 
to the prolonged operation of this system of equality; 
but it seems more likely that the slowness of the 
increase (occasioned by the poverty of the soil, and 
the report of the hardships attending a settlement in 
New England) was itself the reason why the complete 
ascertainment of the rights of separate property was 
so long retarded." 

The colonists ceased to suff'er from a scarcity of 
food after the harvest of 1623. Each family now 



THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 317 

tilled its own quota of land, though the community 
owned the soil. In a very short time so much corn 
was raised that it became a profitable article of com- 
merce, and the Indians purchased corn from the emi- 
grants, or exchanged beaver skins, etc., for it. The 
gains from the fur trade stimulated the envy of one 
Thomas Weston, a London merchant, who had done 
touch in fitting out the Plymouth expedition. He 
now obtained a patent for land near Weymouth, the 
first plantation in Boston Harbour, and sent over sixty 
men. The venture proved a disastrous failure, and 
the colonists threw themselves on the hospitality of 
the Plymouth people, while they alienated the Indians 
by their folly and injustice. An attempt was made 
to massacre Weston's band, but the friendly Indian 
chief Massassoit revealed it to the Plymouth settlers, 
and the Weymouth planters were saved by their 
English brethren, and chiefly through the bravery of 
Miles Staudish, who performed his most gallant ex- 
ploit on this occasion. A portion of the rescued men 
remained at New Plymouth, and the rest returned 
to England. 

It is worthy of note that the colonists of New 
Plymouth never received a charter from the Crown. 
They had one from the grand council of the Plymouth 
Company, by which they were authorized to choose 
a governor, council, and general court for the enact- 
ment of laws, and some historians have mistaken 
this for a royal charter. As a matter of fact, however, 
the social community of New Plymouth was never 
incorporated with legal formalities as a public body, 
but remained a voluntary municipal association until 



318 THE UNITED STATES. 

it was united with the colony of Massachusetts. 
Owing to a variety of causes, the growth of the colony 
was small, and it only numbered three hundred per- 
sons altogether after an existence of ten years. One 
great difficulty arose out of their connection with the 
English adventurers. The latter endeavoured to force 
upon the colonists a clergyman favourable to the 
Established Church, and likewise oppressed them by 
heavy charges upon goods sent from England, and 
heavy usury for money lent. The consequence was 
that the emigrants at length bought out the Eng- 
lish adventurers, after which the common property of 
the settlement was equitably divided, and agriculture 
placed on the sure basis of private possession. The 
cultivators of the soil became the owners of the free- 
hold, and eight of the more substantial settlers 
assumed all the engagements of the colony in con- 
sideration of a trade monopoly for six years. 

In 1 626 an effort was made by the London Plymouth 
Company to establish in Massachusetts a colony 
similar to that of New Plymouth. An expedition 
was sent out under Captain Wollaston, and it was 
his followers who first taught the Indians of the 
district the use of fire-arms — a knowledge which the 
colonists of New England soon had reason to lament. 
Wollaston's eflbrts were unsuccessful, like those of 
several adventurers who had preceded him in the same 
field. The coast of Massachusetts Bay was the scene 
of these failures, but eventually a colony was actually 
founded in this locality upon the model of that of 
New Plymouth. 

A few words must be added with . regard to the 



HE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGKIM FATHERS. 319 

civil government of the Plymouth colony in its early 
days. The governor was chosen by the whole people ; 
and in 1624, at the request of Bradford, his power was 
restricted by the nomination of a council of five to act 
with him, the number being increased to seven in 
1633. When sitting in council, the governor had only 
a double vote, and no law could be made or impost 
laid without the consent of the freemen. The whole 
body of male inhabitants constituted the legislature 
for more than eighteen years; but in 1639, in conse- 
quence of the increase of population, the representative 
system was introduced, and each town sent its com- 
mittee to the general court. Though the colonists 
were never betrayed into those excesses of religious 
persecution from which they had themselves suffered, 
they sometimes sanctioned a disproportion between 
crime and punishment. For example, in 1 645, although 
a majority of the house of delegates were in favour of 
an act to " allow and maintain full and free toleration 
to all men that would preserve the civil peace and 
submit unto government — and there was no limitation 
or exception against Turk, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, 
Nicolaitan, Familist, or any other " — the governor was 
afraid that such a law would " eat out the power of 
godliness," and declined to put the question, so that 
the law was lost. 

But with all its defects, this little colony boasted 
of greater civil and religious freedom than existed in 
any other quarter of the civilized world. The New 
Englanders were pioneers in the noblest sense, and 
out of small beginnings evolved great issues. No 
wonder that their descendants hold their names in 



320 THE UNITED STATES. 

hgnonr and reverence. It was no empty boast when 
an Englishman wrote of the Plymouth colony that 
" the memory of the adventurers to this plantation 
shall never die." As religious men, these early 
settlers " acknowledged no infallible head but God 
Almighty, and no patristic guides to faith and practice 
but the holy company of the Prophets and Apostles." 

It seemed to James I. and his satellites that this 
small baud of Puritans, when it went out to the 
inhospitable shores of Northern America, went to its 
extinction, and to the grave of oblivion. Yet there 
was in this obscure and insignificant band a vitality 
which was destined to assert itself long after the 
Stuarts had been swept from the throne of England. 
The successors of the Plymouth colonists have grown 
into a mighty nation, which is destined to carry aloft 
the torch of liberty, first lit at the fires of persecution 
in England, down to the latest ages of time in the 
history of the Anglo-Saxon race. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011 696 889 7 



# 


■•' 






LiliirliiiiilUi' 



